


Hell Is Empty

by EllanaSan



Series: Katniss, The Vampire Slayer [9]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Buffy The Vampire Slayer Fusion, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Vampire Slayer, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Slayer!Katniss, Vampire Slayer(s), watcher!haymitch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:53:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25085719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllanaSan/pseuds/EllanaSan
Summary: She caught up with Haymitch easily. “Where are Peeta and Effie?”He didn’t spare her a look, not one. She thought that was because he couldn’tfaceher.“They fell in the Hellmouth.” he spat. “Your boy was stupidly heroic and she… She let herself fall so he wouldn’t be alone.”
Relationships: Haymitch Abernathy/Effie Trinket, Katniss Everdeen/Peeta Mellark
Series: Katniss, The Vampire Slayer [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1134281
Comments: 173
Kudos: 173





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> And so starts Season 2! With a bang or a whisper, you tell me. :p 
> 
> I borrowed a character from The Ballad in there but there is no spoilers for that book so you’re safe to read. 
> 
> This episode (that we will call the 9th one not to complicate everything) will be a two-parters (three-parters since it’s the continuation of the last one?). This part will have 8 chapters and I hope you will enjoy them! As usual, it will be updated on Sundays. 
> 
> The title comes from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, you can easily find the quote and have a guess at what’s in store for this episode and the next :p 
> 
> As always thanks to Akachankami for the beta!

Katniss could run faster than ever since she had been Called.

It didn’t matter, though.

She was still too far away when Gloss pried himself off Madge with a hiss, lifting a hand to protect himself from the light quickly swallowing the sky again. Smoke rose around him in tendrils and he abandoned his prey to dash toward the Capitol.

He wasn’t the only one.

She saw two other figures, presumably vampires, one carrying the other, running away from the Hellmouth. She didn’t really pay them attention though.

She probably should have gone after them, followed them inside the hotel and finished them there, but she skidded to her knees next to her friend instead.

“Madge!” Her hand found the other girl’s neck immediately. The bite was bad and there was blood everywhere but Madge was still conscious, blinking her eyelids… “Stay with me. Are you okay?”

There was a groan from a few feet away. Katniss’ eyes slowed down a little when she saw Gale push himself to all four. Gloss had tossed him hard enough that his body had left a dent in Peeta’s passenger door.

“Is she… Is she alright?” the boy mumbled, clearly stunned.

“She’ll live.” Katniss declared with much more confidence than she felt. “Don’t try to move too fast. You may have broken something.”

Gale scoffed something that could have been a laugh in other circumstances. “Likely a rib or two. _Shit_ …” He scrambled to his knees and wrapped an arm around his torso, looking at the truck he had just hit. “Mellark’s not gonna be happy about this…” Then his gaze embraced the meadow, now empty of monsters, and he turned white. “ _Shit_ …”

Katniss purposefully didn’t look behind her. She kept her eyes on Madge, staring straight in her blue eyes because she knew what she would see if she looked elsewhere: _death_. The meadow was littered with dust and small corpses. The few stragglers who had escaped the bloodbath and hadn’t been directed to the bus by the others were wandering around, dazed and confused; the ones on the bus, she could see, were staring out the window and crying…

“Catnip…” Gale said suddenly, sharp and horrified. She could hear the frown in his voice. “Catnip, I think you need to…”

He dragged himself closer despite her protests that he should just sit still and wait for Effie to show up and heal their wounds. Where _was_ the witch? The sky was back to normal, the vampires had flown, she figured the Hellmouth was closed, so… 

“Katniss, I see Rory, Prim and Abernathy. There’s a woman I don’t know. Your weird friend is down. I don’t see anyone else.” Gale insisted, pushing her hand off Madge’s neck to replace it with his own.

“What?” she said weakly, finally turning around, shocked despite being prepared for the sight by the dead grass covered in crimson patches and the piles of corpses next to the hole…

She was vaguely aware that Madge was trying to sit up, telling Gale she was alright, because… Because _Gale was right_.

There were Prim and Rory kneeling next to an unconscious Cinna instead of where she had left them under Peeta’s supervision.

And there, right next to the Hellmouth…

The witch – _Effie’s_ _mother,_ as it turned out – was kneeling down and Haymitch was on his stomach, half his body over the edge, a look of frozen horror on his face…

She shot to her feet and started running before she could even process _why_ , before her brain could register _who_ was _missing_. She didn’t want to process, she didn’t want to register. As long as she was moving, she wasn’t _thinking_.

“Haymitch!” she shouted long before she got close enough to help if the witch turned out to be out for his blood…

He heard her.

She knew he heard her because something flashed on his face right before his expression _closed_. Then he was pushing himself to his knees, away from the hole and, in a swift move, he was on his feet, a hand wrapped around the witch’s throat.

“Open it back!” he roared.

Katniss pulled her bow off her shoulder, fumbling around her quiver for an arrow and swore when she couldn’t find one. She was all out. She barely had time to switch the bow for a knife before she was standing right next to Haymitch.

Not that it mattered.

The witch _vanished out_ of the Watcher’s grip in a cloud of dark smoke and reappeared three feet away, smoothing her woolen cloak as if it was all an inconvenience.

“What happened?” Katniss asked, trying not to panic. “Where’s Peeta? Where’s Effie?”

Haymitch didn’t even glance at her.

He had suffered in the fight, that was obvious. His leather jacket was torn, his left shoulder was abundantly bleeding and, given the way his arm dangled uselessly by his side, she guessed the wound was bad enough that he wouldn’t be able to use it anymore, his nose was bleeding, he had gashes on his face, neck and hands…

Although she probably didn’t look much better. She could feel the sweat running down her back, her brow, her neck, and it made a hundred of little scraps sting…

“Open it back.” he demanded, his grey eyes on the witch.

Elindra Trinket shook her head regretfully. “I cannot.”

“We don’t have time to play games.” Haymitch growled.

“No, we do _not_.” the dark witch snapped. “Which is why you should _rouse_ _your_ _warlock_ and regroup. As loathe as I am to admit it, I am only _a witch_. My powers over certain things are _limited._ Unless you can trigger me another eclipse and get me a gallon of innocent blood, I _cannot_ reopen it. And even if I _could_ reopen it, Effie is not a master vampire. How am I supposed to track _her_ over a billion of hell dimensions? Your best chance here is _not_ a witch, Abernathy. Your best chance is a warlock who can open _portals_ instead of _Hellmouths_.”

Something passed on Haymitch’s face. _Raw_ _hope_. And his eyes immediately looked around, fixing on Prim, Rory and Cinna. He started jogging there. Well, more like _hopping_ , really, as if his body wasn’t cooperating really well.

Katniss didn’t follow immediately because…

Elindra Trinket saw the way she was looking at her and made a face.

“I would _not_.” she warned. “I am not so easily killed and it would be a shame if I had to hurt you. That might impede the little rescue mission your Watcher is planning.” The witch wrinkled her nose. “Find her for me, Slayer, and I will not forget it.”

And then she was gone in a puff of navy smoke so dark it almost looked black. The magic was acrid and burned her lungs when she accidentally inhaled some. 

The witch would die, Katniss decided. One look at the meadow made it clear why it was necessary.

But not _today_.

Because…

She caught up with Haymitch easily. “Where are Peeta and Effie?”

He didn’t spare her a look, not one. She thought that was because he couldn’t _face_ her.

“They fell in the Hellmouth.” he spat. “Your boy was stupidly heroic and she… She let herself fall so he wouldn’t be alone.”

Katniss had known.

Of course, she had known they were both gone.

A part of her brain had already figured it out. Haymitch lying down on the side of the hole, Haymitch telling the witch to _open it back_ … Of course, she had known.

But to hear it so plainly…

She froze.

Perhaps a bigger part of her had hoped they had simply wandered away to help someone in need because that was the kind of things the two of them would do. Peeta particularly. Run after danger because someone needed help…

_Peeta_.

She hadn’t even _kissed_ him before it had all gone to _shit_. There had been no time. All she had been able to focus on was _Prim_ and…

“Haymitch!” Prim exclaimed, tossing herself in the Watcher’s arms.

Katniss didn’t think she imagined the expression of pure relief when the man embraced her sister back – it was a hard and rough hug, with so many feelings packed in it – but he released her almost immediately to drop to his knees and shake Cinna’s shoulder.

“Katniss!” Prim was right next to her now and she wasn’t sure how that had happened. All she could do was blink and think about the way Peeta’s mouth felt on hers, about his hands in her hair… She had _barely_ gotten a taste and now… “Katniss, Effie and Peeta… They fell in the hole.”

“I know.” She heard herself say. Prim looked so panicked, so terrified, that she shook herself out of her own shock and terror to hug her sister. “We’ll get them back.”

“Rory!” Gale was limping toward them, supporting Madge…

Katniss ran a hand down her face and let the twelve year-old boy rush to his brother, taking his spot on the warlock’s other side. “He can get Effie and Peeta back?”

Haymitch glanced up at her. “I don’t know. But we’ve got to be _quick_.”

“Okay.” She nodded. And then she slapped the warlock with all her Slayer’s strength.

“Did we win?” Madge asked, staggering closer. “Did we stop it?”

Katniss spared a glance behind her. The girl didn’t look steady on her feet. Gale was hugging Rory tight with the same relief she had felt when she had been sure her sister was safe…

“I don’t think so.” Prim answered quietly. “I saw an old man being spit out of the hole. And then that vampire woman carried him away.”

“Snow’s free.” Haymitch confirmed, his tone terse. “Weak, I think, but free.”

“Shouldn’t we go after him?” Katniss hesitated, slapping Cinna a third time. “He’s in the Capitol. We can just…”

“He’s in the Capitol with what’s left of a vampire army and the two remaining Careers.” Haymitch snapped. “You feel like taking those odds right now?”

“We could set it on fire.” Gale suggested.

Not a bad suggestion.

“There are humans inside.” Haymitch sighed. “There are _always_ humans inside as hostages. It’s Snow’s MO.” He shook his head. “We don’t have time. Cinna, for _fuck’s_ sake…”

Katniss went to slap him again but a hand coiled around her wrist before she could make contact this time. Not a moment too soon, either. She could hear the faint sound of sirens in the distance. The Seam’s law and order finally riding to the rescue.

The warlock’s golden eyeliner was smudged. When he opened his eyelids, his eyes were entirely black.

It triggered all her Slayer’s instincts and she had to force herself not to recoil.

“Portia…” Cinna murmured, his voice hoarse.

“I’m sorry.” Haymitch said, sincerely enough, Katniss thought. “I’m sorry but I need you. _Right now_.”

“I have a witch to flay alive.” the warlock growled, grabbing Katniss’s shoulder and using it as a level to haul himself to a sitting position. He looked around and let out a noise that was definitely not human. It sounded like a roar. “ _You cannot hide from me, Elindra!”_

“Effie and Peeta fell in.” Haymitch told him quickly.

“ _Shit_ …” Gale whispered at that confirmation.

They were all huddled around the warlock now, each of them more or less hurt. Rory and Prim seemed, thankfully, mostly alright spare for a few scrapes and bruises. Madge was the worse off. She was leaning against Gale again and seemed to still be conscious by pure strength of will alone. Gale was favoring the side the girl wasn’t leaning on. Haymitch… Haymitch was clearly seriously hurt but it also didn’t seem to bother him much.

“How long?” Cinna asked, his attention all on the Watcher now.

“Eight, ten minutes.” The Watcher licked his lips. “Can you open it back?”

The warlock immediately shook his head. “Not without a ritual. And… That’s not the best way. We need… A tracking spell. I can open a portal to wherever they are but that will drain me. I can give you two, three minutes on this side. Tops.”

“That will do.” Haymitch agreed. “Do it.”

“The police is coming.” Madge cut in. “Maybe we should…”

“We can’t waste any time.” the Watcher snarled, interrupting her. “It’s already been too long! Mind your own _fucking_ business.”

“Hey! Don’t talk to her like that!” Gale scowled, tightening his grip on the girl’s waist protectively.

“Easy, Haymitch.” Katniss rebuked at the same time. “She risked her life today. It’s her business too.”

Haymitch blinked, looked up at Madge with that stricken look he always got when she reminded him too much of her aunt. He ran a hand on his face. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. They’re right. I’m… But we don’t _have_ time. It’s…”

“I will need supplies.” Cinna countered, pushing himself to his feet. Katniss helped him. “And something to track them with. You are hurt. And I will need focus. We cannot deal with that _and_ the police. Never mind the fact I do not want to attempt that with the Hellmouth behind me. We need to go back to the Village first.”

“It’s been close to fifteen minutes already. That means another half hour at least.” Haymitch argued.

“I know.” Cinna admitted. “But that is the best I can offer. Rushing something like this will get us all killed, them included. I will drive the bike. You are in no state to do that.”

For a moment, it seemed like Haymitch would argue again but then his shoulders slouched, defeated. Cinna went to pick up one of the bodies. A dead woman Katniss didn’t know. He lovingly stroke her cheek and then with a twist of his wrist the body disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

“We can’t leave the kids…” Gale hesitated as they all started walking toward the parking lot. Some of the children had gotten off the bus and were hovering there, shocked and crying. “Even if the police’s coming, that’s…”

“Stay behind.” Haymitch ordered. “You and the girl. Tell them you were cutting school for a date or something… Tell them it was a gang. People with masks. You didn’t see properly. They won’t ask more questions than that. They never do.”

“Won’t they notice the big hole with the shiny metal seal?” Gale shot back.

“What hole?” Haymitch snorted.

And when all the teenagers looked over their shoulder, there was no hole to be seen. The earth at the foot of the lightning tree was undisturbed. As if there had been no giant gap that seemed to go down to the heart of the Earth itself.

“What the _fuck_ …” Rory whispered.

“Magic.” Prim dismissed. “I’ll explain later.”

“We need Gale to come with us.” Katniss pointed out belatedly. “I can’t drive. Peeta…”

Her throat closed and she couldn’t say any more.

“I’ll stay.” Madge suggested. “I’ll call my dad. I’ll… I’ll take care of it.”

“We’ve got to hurry.” Haymitch insisted again, as they reached the cars. He looked straight at Gale. “Don’t look at the speed limit. Don’t stop for _anything_.”

Rory and Prim had already climbed on the backseat and Katniss stopped, the passenger door open, one foot in the trunk. “You think it’s so bad where they are they won’t be able to hold on for an hour?”

Of course it would be bad.

It was _hell_.

Well… A hellish dimension anyway.

And Peeta was only human but Effie… Effie could fight. Effie could keep them alive for an hour surely? 

Haymitch climbed on the bike behind Cinna, looking far too pale. “Time is relative. It’s always going faster in hellish dimensions. Sixty minutes. That could be two days for them. Or two months. Or even two _fucking_ years. No way to tell.”

“What?” Her voice was faint and she got no answer. The bike had already roared away, pushed, she was sure, by Cinna’s magic.

She dropped on the passenger seat and covered her face with her hands.

It was Madge who closed the door for her, Madge who whispered it would be okay, Madge who then staggered away to try and comfort the kids…

Madge was the last thing she saw of that meadow.

Then Gale was following the bike on a narrow mostly unused road that would hopefully allow them to avoid the police and to waste more time in stupid explanations.

And all _she_ could do was stare at the dashboard...


	2. Chapter 2

The silence in the truck was deafening.

Katniss felt like her body was weighing a ton but it wasn’t just exhaustion, it was… All the dead children she had not wanted to look at… The knowledge they had failed and Snow was free… Probably because she had done the stupid selfish thing and gone after Prim instead of stopping the witch from doing the ritual. Those dead kids… They were on her. Her fault. Her responsibility. _Her_ _ghosts_. 

And now Peeta…

Maybe it was cosmic punishment.

She had been selfish and thus she had lost…

The pain in her chest. It was terrible. It was like she couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t… She tried not to think about it. They would get him and Effie back. They _would_.

_Time is relative. It’s always going faster in hellish dimensions. Sixty minutes. That could be two days for them. Or two months. Or even two fucking years. No way to tell._

She tried not to picture them fighting for their lives for two _fucking_ years, wondering why they hadn’t come for them yet, wondering if they _would_ come… Peeta would know she would never leave him behind, wouldn’t he? He _would_ know.

And Effie… They were a sisterhood. A _family_. They had acknowledged that much. She was hard on her sometimes but she did love her second Watcher. The witch too would know that Katniss would never abandon her, wouldn’t she? 

Trunks flashed back through her windows, greenery slowly leaving place to the more familiar landscape of small houses at the town edge

They were all so lost in their respective thoughts that they all startled very badly when something beeped. It was a few seconds and several racy heartbeats before she recognized Gale’s phone ringtone.

Her friend swore and muttered curses under his breath as he tried to keep the truck from swerving while he fetched the phone from his pocket. In the end, Katniss took pity on him and just batted his hand away to grab it. It was awkward like it never would have been before but she didn’t even care.

All she cared about was finding _Peeta_.

She couldn’t even be bothered to worry about what it meant for Snow to be free.

All she could care about was _Peeta_.

The phone had stopped ringing by the time she got it out but it was as old as hers was, not modern enough for password protection. She only had to type on a key to get it to light up. “It’s your mom.”

“Call her back.” Gale requested immediately.

She did but she didn’t hand the phone over because, following Haymitch’s instructions, Gale was driving much faster than was reasonable. Belatedly, she checked in the rear-view mirror that both of their siblings had their seatbelts on.

“ _Gale!”_ Hazelle’s frenzied voice came through the phone. _“Something happened to your brother’s field trip and I can’t get a hold of him. The school doesn’t…”_

“It’s Katniss, Mrs Hawthorne.” she cut the woman off slowly. She barely recognized her own voice. She sounded so tired. “Gale can’t talk to you ‘cause he’s driving.”

“ _Driving_?” Hazelle repeated. _“Driving what? Are you going to the meadow? Your sister… They’re always together those two. Did you get a hold on your sister?”_

“We have them, Mrs Hawthorne.” she promised and maybe she should have led with _that_. “They’re both fine.” She glanced at the rear-view mirror again and reconsidered. Her sister’s clothes were a bit torn and one of her braids had come undone. Rory didn’t look any better. “Well, they’re not hurt.”

_“Oh, thank god…”_ the woman sobbed. _“Thank god… Come to_ Sae’s _. Parents are waiting here. Everyone’s coming here for news…”_

“We can’t.” she winced. “We’re…” They couldn’t afford to drop Rory off. “We’re fine. All four of us. But two of our friends are missing. We’re…” A lie… She needed a good lie that would explain why she didn’t want to go to the diner to wait for news with everyone else. “We got separated. We’re going home. To Haymitch’s. In case they come back, you know.”

There was a pause on the other side of the line. Hazelle clearly wasn’t happy with that plan because she wanted to hug her sons and see with her own eyes that they were okay. _“Can you put Rory on the phone?”_

She wordlessly handed the phone to the little boy who took it eagerly. He didn’t last two seconds before starting to cry. Prim immediately grabbed his hand and did her very best to pretend she wasn’t also crying.

“I lost my bag, I don’t know where my phone is.” was the first thing Rory said between gasps. “No, I’m… I’m okay. Gale came and saved me. Katniss and her friends helped. But… It was… It was _horrible_. Mom, they’re all… They’re all _dead…_ I saw… Yes, I’m fine, I promise. Gale too. Yes, Prim and Katniss too.” Katniss slouched in her seat, feeling… Feeling like a _failure_. “No, it’s… I think we’re going to Prim’s house to get her friends.” Rory said, sounding hesitant and careful, maybe a bit unsure. But at least he had stopped crying. “No, that’s alright. I’m fine, I promise. Do you think… Do you think we should have waited for the police? It just… It was horrible back there… Okay… Okay… yeah… Okay, I’ll tell him. I love you too.”

He hung up, stared at the phone in his hand for a moment and then made an effort to swallow the lump in his throat. “Mom said she’s gonna tell the police we’ve gone home. She doesn’t think they will mind. I just… I don’t want it to look suspect. It’d look suspect on TV if people were there and they just ran away…”

“It won’t look suspect, Rory.” Gale promised. “We’re not gonna get in trouble. Madge’s gonna take care of it, you heard her. Her dad’s the Mayor, you know.”

Rory sniffed and glanced at Prim, quickly wiping his wet cheek on his sleeves. “Mom says we can go to Mr Abernathy’s if it’s okay with him but that she wants you to call her regularly so she knows what we’re doing and where we are. She’s gonna stay at _Sae’s_ and help..” 

“Okay.” He nodded. “That’s cool. Hey, you know Mellark’s got the latest Xbox? I’m sure he wouldn’t mind you borrowing it for a while. Right, Catnip?”

“Right.” she said flatly. She was sure of one thing, Peeta would have been the first one to offer anything to comfort the boy. And he would have been doing a better job than either of them were doing. Even her sister looked shell-shocked and it wasn’t her first vampire attack.

“It’s gonna be okay.” Prim promised but Katniss wasn’t sure who she was talking to.

“Gale…” Rory asked, after a minute of tense silence. “What just happened?”

Gale took his grey eyes off the road long enough to glance at the rear-view mirror and meet his brother’s gaze. “The important part’s that it’s over. You’re safe. I’ve got you. And Katniss, here… Well, she’s like a superhero, alright? Nothing bad can happen to you while she’s around.”

That was a change of tune.

Katniss looked at him, a silent question on her face, but he shrugged it off. Prim started explaining everything, from the vampires to the Slayer thing. Katniss should probably have stopped her but… Again, she couldn’t really bother to care.

“Okay, so…” Gale said when the Village’s gates were looming in the distance. _Finally_. She glanced at the clock on the dashboard and it had been almost twenty minutes since they had left the meadow. Roughly thirty minutes since the Hellmouth closed. How long for _them_? “I didn’t get what we’re doing now… How are we getting them back? Magic?”

He looked just as pleased about that prospect as expected.

“I don’t know.” she admitted. “Cinna’s gonna open a portal or something.”

“To _Hell_?” He winced. “Weren’t the bad guys trying to do _just_ that and that’s why we had to stop them?”

“They were trying to free a monster and we want our friends back. It’s different.” she snapped. “And Cinna won’t use dark magic or…” Her mind flashed back to Effie’s forearms splitting open, to the blood covering the library’s floor… “It’s _different_.” She had to believe it was because she wasn’t sure it would be enough to stop her from letting him do it even if it weren’t. “And it’s not _Hell_ Hell _.”_

“Hellmouth.” he deadpanned. “Mouth to hell. It’s in the name, Katniss.”

“They call it that because it’s dark magic. And, yeah, it leads to hell, but… Hell isn’t just hell… It’s…” She sighed. “It’s complicated, alright?” She had read so many books and it still wasn’t clear to her. She let Haymitch and Effie handle that side of things. “It’s _a_ hell. There are a lot of hellish dimensions. Awful places. The Hellmouth can open on any of them. But they’re not the same. It’s not all like… Flames and a devil and I don’t know… ”

“You can count on demons, though.” Prim pointed out from the backseat. When Katniss tossed her a look, she shrugged. “I’ve been researching.”

“Yeah.” Katniss pursed her mouth. “You’ve been doing a lot of things you shouldn’t have been doing and we’re gonna have a _long_ talk about _that_.”

Prim flinched.

She didn’t feel good about hurting her sister’s feelings but… Going to that field trip… Prim had known _exactly_ why it wasn’t a good idea. And she had gone anyway. And, what was worse, she had _lied by omission_ about it.

“Okay so… We open a portal to _a_ hellish dimension…” Gale insisted, bringing them back on track. “And then… What? We wait for them to jump through?”

Haymitch hadn’t explained that part.

But it was obvious, wasn’t it?

They wouldn’t wait for them to come through.

They would go and get them.

But she doubted Gale would approve that part…

The truck barreled past the Village’s rusty gates and she felt… _nothing_. She always felt a tingle when she passed the gates. Barely there and gone. A tingle of _something_ at the edge of her awareness.

When she had told Haymitch, he had said she was feeling the wards on the Village, that what she was feeling was really Effie’s magic, that it was just her Slayer’s senses.

But now…

Now she felt… _nothing_.

The wards had fallen.

As if Effie had never casted them.

As if Effie was dead.

°O°O°O°O°

Haymitch’s consciousness was trying to slip away from him.

His shoulder throbbed, his body was stiff. His good arm clung to Cinna’s body but he felt himself slipping as if underwater…

Had Brutus hit his head at some point?

That seemed likely.

Maybe he had a concussion.

_Or maybe you’re just going in withdrawals_ , a voice that sounded like Effie’s nagged at the back of his mind.

That was likely too.

He hadn’t drunk in two long. He felt like _shit_.

He felt like…

_Don’t make me bury you_.

How many times had he _demanded_ that of her? _How many fucking times_? Again and again he had warned her it would end this way. Again and again. Of course, it ended this way. Of course. Every time he got close to a woman…

_Don’t make me bury you_.

This was exactly like Mabel but _worse_. Because with Mabel, there had been a body. Unseeing eyes, a large gaping wound on her chest that ran from her shoulder to her hip, almost matching the one on his stomach… He had cradled her and held her and… He had still been holding her when the police had showed up and arrested him for murder. _Murder_. The sweet irony.

But Effie… He didn’t have a body to hold. He didn’t have the finality of looking into her dead eyes. All he had was a mouthed _I’m sorry_ and the looping memory of her falling down in that mess of light, straight into hell.

He tried to figure out how long it had been since she fell.

He tried to figure out how long she had already been trapped in that hell, doing her utmost best to protect the boy he couldn’t bring himself to think about – because if he was already doubtful she could hold for a while with her powers, he was pretty sure the boy would be dead before long – wondering if, by the time they got to them, there would still be a body or if she would be dust in the wind. It could have been weeks or months or years or _centuries_ for them. No way to know.

Were they in a place where fighting was even possible at all? Or were they just prisoners? Were they being tortured? Had they become food for something hungry for flesh?

When the bike rushed through the Village’s gate he felt… He felt _nothing_. No magic that tingled like a kiss…

He closed his eyes and tried to swallow back the lump in his throat.

_Don’t make me bury you_.

He had thought he would die for sure, this time around, that it was his time, that she would take over and…

_Snow was free_.

He had known it would happen all along.

That feeling in his guts…

The bike stopped in front of his house and he tried to get off but without Cinna’s help he would have fallen flat on his face. The warlock tossed him a serious look.

“I will put some temporary wards up around the Village. Then I’ll fix your shoulder the best I can.” Cinna announced.

“No time.” he argued. “We’ve got…”

“You are about to jump through a portal to hell.” Cinna cut him off. “We will do it the clever way.”

“Cause there’s a clever way?” he deadpanned and then rubbed his face. “What do you need? I’ll go get it from her house.”

“I’ll do it.” his friend argued. “Get inside before you drop down.”

He didn’t protest.

Mostly because it would save time but also because he needed to get ready. The moment he was past the threshold of his house, he dropped the jacket that was shredded beyond repairs, wincing because of his shoulder, and found another one. That hellish dimension could be hot or cold and there would be no way to know until they got there. He slung his mother’s sword right back over his good shoulder. He had lost his stakes and his knives in the fray so he grabbed a handful of spares and then headed to the kitchen, intending to sneak a swing of a bottle, just enough to calm his nerves and stop the withdrawals from kicking in…

He couldn’t go past the door frame.

A handful of hours earlier only, he had stood right there, his arms wrapped around Effie’s body and…

_I feel fate closing in on us, Haymitch… I am scared somebody will die…_

He licked his lips.

_Duty first_ , they had sworn.

And he had made a _fucking bullshit_ job of that.

He should have been able to control Katniss so she didn’t run straight into the battle instead of taking out that witch. Short of that, he should have finished the job himself instead of charging after his Slayer. He had _fucked_ up badly.

Now, Snow was walking the Earth again.

All because he couldn’t keep his priorities straight.

All because he couldn’t keep his Slayer in line.

Effie should be the active Watcher from now on, he decided. Her mind wasn’t as easily mudded. Unlike him, she had gone straight for the threat and she had obviously tried to put an end to it even when she had realized the threat was her own mother.

Except, officially, she already _was_ in charge, wasn’t she? Coin had told her to take point weeks ago, after Gloss had showed up. They had ignored it. So it would be _her_ mess to clean over as far as the Council would be concerned. Another unfair thing to add to the pile.

And, for the first time in forever, Haymitch could admit the Council had been right and he had been wrong.

And, _shit_ , how _epically_ had he _fucked_ up… 

“Haymitch?” Katniss called almost as soon as he heard the front door opening.

He backtracked out of the kitchen without touching a drop.

Also for the first time in forever, he didn’t feel like drinking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm saying we keep Rory. He seems like a sensible person to have around, a bit traumatized now maybe but... he's not the only one, is he? For someone who wasn't sure she wanted a boyfriend, Katniss is veeeeery focused on getting Peeta back, isn't she? And Haymitch... Is now really the best time to go sober... Might be the time to admit to those pesky little feelings though... 
> 
> So... What do we think? Will Effie make Haymitch burry her? Will Haymitch make it sober? Will Katniss get Peeta back? Will Gale be happy when he realizes what they're planning? Should Rory and Prim start the junior Slayer team? Let me know EVERYTHING!


	3. Chapter 3

“The dead woman from earlier is on the couch.” Rory said, sounding almost _blasé_ about it.

Maybe there was a limit to what you could freak out about in one day, Katniss mused, and maybe she shouldn’t have sent the kids in the living-room without checking it first. She watched Haymitch drag his feet away from the kitchen and toward her and Gale. He really didn’t look good.

“Do you want an aspirin or something?” she asked.

Haymitch made a strangled sound that could have passed for a laugh, his grey eyes roaming over her once, checking for injuries more likely than not. He hadn’t asked about wounds yet, which really wasn’t like him. Then he looked at Gale and winced. “You broke something, boy?”

“It’s fine.” Gale grumbled. “Ribs hurt but… It’s fine.”

She doubted it was fine but he wasn’t coughing blood so she was counting her victories. She dropped her bow and went to business. “I’m out of arrows.”

“There’s a stock in the basement, I think.” Haymitch muttered. “Bring me back the good tossing knives if you go down.”

She nodded and hurried downstairs to retrieve the items, ignoring Gale’s question about why they needed weapons inside and if they weren’t safe there – she presumed he wanted to make sure Rory wasn’t in danger, she also presumed Haymitch didn’t actually tell him they were planning to go to hell because she heard no yelling the whole time she was down there. And she was counting the _minutes_ , wondering how long it was for Peeta and Effie…

She grabbed the case with the good tossing knives Effie had ordered online not too long ago because she had declared Haymitch’s set was blunted and then rummaged around until she found the arrows. She preferred to make her own. Those weren’t as well adjusted or, at least, not to her satisfaction and she would have liked to test them before taking them off to battle but there was no time to lose and beggars couldn’t be choosers.

She was almost back to the ground floor when she felt a whoosh of magic pass over her.

“Haymitch!” she shouted, alarmed.

It didn’t feel light or like a tickle at the back of her mind. It felt like hitting a wall at full speed.

“Just Cinna.” he called back. “Temporary wards on the Village.”

She relaxed but not much and followed the sound of voices to the living-room where, Rory was right, a dead woman who had probably been very pretty was lying on the couch. Prim had clearly manhandled Haymitch in an armchair and was poking at his shoulder, trying to pry his shirt away from his skin to take a look… He wasn’t having it.

Gale was perched on the coffee table, Rory was sitting on the floor, his eyes lost in the distance…

It was almost a relief when Cinna _poofed_ back inside in a cloud of purple smoke, his arms full of vials of herbs and… _magic stuff_.

He paused a second when he found them all there, glancing at the dead woman with raw pain on his face before looking at Haymitch. “I am going to need something to track them with.”

Haymitch had already pushed Prim away – gently but firmly – and was back to his feet. “Something precious to them, yeah?”

“Yes.” Cinna confirmed, stepping closer to the Watcher with a frown. “I am _really_ not good at healing spells. Stand _very_ still.” He pressed his hand flat against the wound on Haymitch’s shoulder and Katniss clenched her jaw, trying to remind herself they were _trusting_ Cinna. Even if he had almost bled out Effie earlier. There was no light show like when the witch did something similar, no halo of gold, just Haymitch groaning and wincing. “That’s the best I can do.”

The warlock took his hand off Haymitch and the Watcher rolled his injured shoulder back and forth a few times. It was still painful, that was obvious, but it didn’t seem to be bleeding anymore.

“Can someone tell me what we’re doing?” Gale asked, sounding tired but alert. “And are we safe here?”

“There are a lot of hours of daylight left.” Haymitch muttered, strapping the tossing knives to various parts of his body and handing her what was left so she could do the same. “And under Cinna’s protection, you should be perfectly safe until we’re back. Might be a good idea to keep a hand on your bow though.”

It went to show that Gale was more affected by what happened that his first reaction was to shake his head and answer “I don’t think I can shoot with my side” before he realized what else Haymitch had said. “Wait… What do you mean _until you’re back_?”

Katniss glanced at Prim but her sister’s features were strained into a determined expression. She had got it from the start, probably.

“Something precious to them, what does that mean exactly?” she asked Cinna, already mentally reviewing objects she knew Peeta cared about.

“Something they have a strong attachment to.” the warlock clarified. “The more they love it, the better.”

“Not hard to pick, then, is it?” Gale snorted, gesturing at her. Then he seemed to regret it and shook his head. “You’re not _serious_. You’re _not_ going to jump through a portal to _hell_ for…”

“For the boy who saved your brother less than an hour ago?” she snapped.

“You know, it could work…” Haymitch told Cinna, completely ignoring the argument. “The boy… He _does_ love her. I think he loves her more than anything else.”

Katniss flushed red. “That’s not true.”

“I’m grateful to Mellark.” Gale retorted, standing up. “ _Fuck_ , Katniss, I _am_. But that’s plain stupid. We’re talking about _going to hell_. You think he would want you to do that? To risk your life like that?”

She stared at Gale and then shrugged. “I don’t think he would _want_ it, no. But I think he knows I would do it and he’s waiting for me. Haymitch?”

“Ready, sweetheart.” he said impatiently.

“Does Effie love you enough that I could establish a connection to her through _you_?” Cinna asked him, matter-of-factly. “It would make it easier if I had _two_ points of anchor.”

Haymitch flushed too. “I don’t know. Don’t think so. It’s not… We’re not…”

“Try.” Katniss ordered.

Cinna nodded once. “Move aside.” Prim, Rory and Gale all moved away at the same time, Gale more reluctantly than the others. He wanted to offer to come with, that was obvious but Rory was clinging to his arm. “Two minutes on this side. Three top.” Cinna reminded Haymitch.

“Ain’t planning on retiring there, Cinna.” Haymitch snarled, glancing at Gale. “Hawthorne, if this goes to _shit_ and we don’t come back, you grab Prim and your family and you get out of town. Madge too, if Snow sees her she’s gonna be a target.”

“You’re coming back.” Prim answered before Gale could. “You’re coming back and you’re _bringing them back_.”

Haymitch looked at her and then at Cinna who was quickly and efficiently drawing a circle with herbs and what not. “If we don’t make it, the Council will probably know as soon as a Potential activates. But if the next one’s a rogue, it’s gonna take time… If we don’t come back, call them. They need to know what happened.” The warlock acknowledged that with a nod and stood up in the middle of his circle, outstretching both hands toward Katniss…

Again, she felt his magic _slam_ into her, wrap around her, tearing her apart…

She vaguely heard the incantations, distantly heard Haymitch tell her to get ready…

She kept her thoughts on Peeta, hoping this would work, hoping…

There was a _pop_ in the air, her ears went deaf, and there, in the middle of their living-room, there was an oval… _tear_ in reality, a ball of pure magic energy hovering in the air. She had never seen a portal before. She never wanted to see one again.

She could guess at vague shapes on the other side.

It looked… _not good_.

Haymitch didn’t hesitate though.

He ran straight at it, a knife in each hand.

She ran right after him, hopping into the portal with her eyes closed – which was probably a mistake.

She hadn’t expected the velocity with which she was expelled from it.

She instinctively tucked herself into a ball, rolled over on landing… Haymitch hadn’t managed that as gracefully and he picked himself off the ground with a wince. Katniss made sure he was alright, then she surveyed their surroundings in search of possible enemies and _then_ she finally let herself take in the place they had arrived in.

“Are we sure it’s the right dimension?”

It was deserted.

It was all grayish.

Grayish stony plains with equally grayish and stony hills in the distance. The sky was a cloudy orange. There were pools of green _something_ that bubbled and smoked in various spots. The air reeked of rotten eggs. Sulphur, she realized after a moment.

“That’s where the spell leads.” he mumbled, looking around, on his guard.

She glanced back at the portal that still hovered in the air. She could guess at Cinna’s vague shape. The warlock had his hands outstretched but he looked… _frozen_.

She pointed at him. “Guess that means time does go faster here?” 

Haymitch barely spared the portal a glance. “That was really likely. Question’s how fast? And where they are…” He took a few steps in the direction of the closest hill, weapons still at the ready. “The spell dropped us here so we should be close enough… Let’s get to higher ground, try to get a sense of what we’re dealing with here…”

He was looking at the ground when he wasn’t scanning the environment and Katniss wondered if he was looking for bones.

“We’ll find them.” she promised.

“Sure.” His tone was flat, hopeless.

“Haymitch.” she snapped. “We _will_ find them.”

“You’re aware that what we should be doing right now is find a way to dispatch Snow while he’s still weak, yeah?” he scoffed. “That what we’re _actually_ doing instead is completely selfish and stupid cause chances are they’re already dead and we’re wasting time and energy that could help save actual people out there?”

The guilt was swift but she didn’t have too much trouble pushing it aside.

Like she hadn’t had too much trouble choosing Prim over the rest of the world.

Was she doing her duty right then? _Clearly_ not. Just like she hadn’t been when she had rushed after her sister instead of attacking the witch.

But, then again, even now, even knowing the consequences, the choice wasn’t that difficult.

If the _Powers That Be_ had wanted a selfless Slayer who always did her duty over making sure her family was okay, they had picked the wrong girl. 

“Yes. I’m aware.” She pursed her lips and kept her gaze straight ahead.

“Good.” Haymitch snorted. “Just checking.”

They walked past one of those bubbling pools and the smell was so bad they started coughing. They covered their noses with their arms and ran for the safety of the closest hill…

“What the _fuck_ is this place?” she grumbled.

“Hell.” Haymitch deadpanned. “Which brings the question… Where are the demons?”

She could have killed him.

Every time one of them asked that sort of question, it _jinxed_ them.

And this time wasn’t an exception.

Because suddenly, as if they were popping out of nowhere with war cries, they were surrounded by a small army of them.

Katniss fell into motion without even realizing it.

She shot three arrows in quick succession.

One of them missed its mark because it wasn’t _her_ arrow and the weight was off. The other two hit two demons in the chest.

Haymitch had beheaded one and was on his way to chop off another one’s arm with his sword when they came too close for long ranged weapons. Haymitch’s sword did a good job at keeping them at bay but Katniss had to drop her bow for the knives, which was not her favorite combat style.

It all went so fast all she could do was fall back until her back was to Haymitch’s.

There were at least fifteen demons – _thirteen_ now because she stabbed one in the eye and gutted another one. Humanoid shaped. Grey scaly skin that blended with the decors and explained why they had crept up on them, they had probably just been laying in wait on the ground. They were wearing clothes. White rags so dirty they looked just as grey as everything else. They were armed with batons and moved with unnatural synch.

“Katniss.” Haymitch warned, out of breath.

She couldn’t see him but she could feel it behind her: his movements were slowing down, they were less fluid. The initial adrenalin boost was gone, he was feeling his exhaustion and his injuries, she figured.

She kicked the two demons that were on her left side to make a hole in the fray. “Get behind me!”

He did and, for a second, they were facing the group of demons, with Haymitch slightly behind her tossing his knives and missing one time out of three. Not the worst odds but bad enough nonetheless. 

It was _unmanageable._

Down to eleven demons, they were forced to back away. She took a hit from a baton in the leg that brought her down to her knee… Haymitch switched back to his sword and dispatched another one.

Down to ten.

They wouldn’t make it.

It was glaringly obvious. 

They were being steered toward one of the green puddles…

One of the demons got Haymitch on the side of the head with its baton and she watched, horrified, as her Watcher went down like a sack of potatoes, knocked out.

She managed to kill another one but took a hit to her kidneys.

One of them jumped on her back, forced her to the ground…

Then, they were all on her. She struggled, trying to wriggle free before they could snap her neck or bite her or whatever that particular brand of demons did…

It didn’t occur to her until they forced her arms behind her back and she felt the coarse rope around her wrists that they weren’t going to kill them, that they were going to _capture_ them…

She was pondering what that might mean when one of the demons closest to her suddenly hit the dust, eyes open and unseeing, a crudely fashioned spear protuberating from his chest. She couldn’t see what was happening but demons were fighting…

She had a moment of hope that it was Effie, Effie and Peeta riding to the rescue as improbable as it sounded – and how they would both make fun of them for being the ones doing the rescuing after being stuck in hell for so long…

But when the fighting stopped and despite her best attempts at wriggling free of the ropes, it wasn’t Effie or Peeta who stepped into her line of sight. It was another demon, more womanly-shaped than the others, a female clearly. Unlike the others, her skin was a rich dark brown. She was wearing a crude armor of furs and leather rather than the white-grey rags… They were from the same species though, they had the same scaly skin, the same small bumps on the forehead…

Their eyes met.

Katniss felt like she was looking into a mirror somehow.

It took her a moment to realize it was because the she-demon had the same kind of inner strength, the same kind of charismatic power a Slayer did.

In many ways, Katniss confusedly felt they were alike.

Then the demon brought down her boot on her head and everything faded to black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's not Kansas anymore... :p They made it to hell... Barely... With a convo about what Peeta and Effie love most that wasn't embarassing at all... Care to bet on who's the female demon? I hope you enjoyed this! Let me know your thoughts!


	4. Chapter 4

When Katniss came to, her head hurt, her shoulders ached and her wrists felt raw.

She took stock before opening her eyes because once she did that, there would probably be demons to contend with.

First… What had happened? Her confused thoughts took a while to organize and, when they did, it was to remember the Reaping, the dead kids, Snow, and, above all, that Peeta and Effie had fallen into hell and that she and Haymitch had followed. Everything else came back much quicker. The grey plains, the grey demons trying to capture them only to be killed by the female demon one…

She was in a sitting position, her head dangling over her chest in a way that strained her neck. Her arms were pulled behind her back, which explained the ache in her shoulders, her wrists were tied together and she, herself, was tied to… What was it? A broad pole? A stump? Did they have trees in this place?

Something shifted next to her, pressing into her side. Too deliberately to be an accident.

She opened her eyes, relieved to find Haymitch tied up next to her.

Nothing else that greeted her sight relieved her though. They had been brought back to where the portal hovered in mid-air and the demons had set camp. It was a crude camp. A large fire pit with… _something_ roasting on a stick, about six grey-skinned demons wearing fur and leather sitting around the fire, spears and bows strapped to their backs. They never said a word but they still seemed to be communicating somehow. The female demon, easily recognizable thanks to her brown skin, was further away, standing in front of the portal and staring at it… There were at least five more demons that Katniss couldn’t really see but _sense_ patrolling the perimeter…

The sky wasn’t orange either anymore. It was pitch dark. No stars. Just a huge moon looming over them like a swollen rotten fruit. It looked bluish and yellow. Disturbing. 

“What happened?” she asked, in a low voice. It was still far too loud in the surrounding silence but none of the demons turned their heads toward them. 

“We got captured.” Haymitch answered flatly. “Don’t think those are the same guys who attacked us though. Weapons and clothes are different.”

Her Watcher had seen better days. She couldn’t see him properly since they were tied up side by side but she could glimpse the clotted blood at the back of his head that hinted at a wound. And his face… It was hard to say in the weird halo of the moon and the firelight but his skin looked slightly yellow. He was sweating too, which was odd because she was on the cold side now that the sun had set. 

She frowned. “Are you okay?”

Haymitch didn’t answer at once. He licked his lips and eventually let out a small snort. “Guess I didn’t pick the best time to get sober.”

_Shit_.

That was the _last_ thing they needed.

“How bad is it?” She needed to know. Because if he was going to go into withdrawals and become absolutely useless… Well, she might as well find a way to send him home.

“Manageable.” he dismissed. “We’ve got bigger fish to fry.”

She studied him as best as she could but he wouldn’t turn his head to look at her, he was watching the she-demon. Back to business, then. “How long were we out?”

“A few hours, I think.” Haymitch shook his head and then winced, doing his best to swallow back a groan. “ _Shit_ , I think that demon took a piece of my skull.”

She strained her neck while he bowed a little but she couldn’t see anything _terribly_ alarming. Just a wound that had clotted over. It wasn’t pretty, that was for sure, and it would probably warrant a trip to the ER when they got back but, then again, her knee felt sort of busted too.

“You’ll live.” she professed and he snorted.

“Will I?” He closed his eyes and tilted his head back a little, looking more tired than she had ever seen him. “This is starting to feel a lot like karma, sweetheart. _Shitty_ karma.”

She understood the feeling.

The last few hours… _Hell_ , the last few _days_ … It all felt like it had lasted _years_ instead of twenty-four hours.

“I don’t even get how it happened.” she sighed. “The Village was supposed to be _safe_ from evil. If Effie’s mom was the bad guy all along, how did she get in?”

“Ain’t sure she was the bad guy _all along_ …” he hesitated. “From what Effie told me about her, she sounds like the opportunistic kind… Either way…” He shrugged. “The Village is warded against _evil_ _intentions_. That’s safer than just barring entries to demons. Some demons ain’t evil. Some humans are. Evil intentions screen a larger specter…”

“Sure.” she mocked. “If it _works_.”

“Effie told her what it was warded against so she must have found a loophole.” Haymitch scoffed. “Maybe when she came to the house, she didn’t have any evil intentions toward _us_. Maybe all she wanted was to convince Effie to stay far away from the shitshow. To protect her.”

“Right.” she deadpanned. “That’s why she tossed her into the Hellmouth.”

He didn’t have a good retort to that.

And Katniss supposed it wasn’t the priority anyway.

The priority, right now, was to escape so they could track down Peeta. And Effie, she remembered a heartbeat too late.

“Any idea why they captured us instead of killing us?” she asked, studying the demons again.

“You’re complaining?” he taunted but soon became serious again. “I don’t know but don’t be fooled by the cavemen look, they’re much smarter than they appear.”

She frowned. “Do you know what species they are?”

That was the advantage of having an experienced demon-hunter on hand, he knew almost every species of demons on sight.

“No.” he admitted.

_Or not_ , she thought, trying not to let her frustration get the better of her. While they were sitting there useless, Peeta might get attacked by one of those other baton-armed demon groups.

“That one has magic, though.” he added, jutting his chin in the direction of the female who was still staring at the portal with her back to them.

She watched the female more attentively but, aside for that brief weird moment of kinship earlier and the obvious difference in pigmentation, she didn’t look any different from the other demons. “How do you know?”

“Cause she spoke to me in English.” he told her. “Directly in my head.”

Katniss’s gaze snapped back to his profile but he was still putting up the relaxed act, looking absolutely unbothered by the situation. Almost bored, really.

She sort of wanted to kill him. “You’re saying they’re telepaths?”

“I’m saying they’re telepaths.” he confirmed. “I’m also thinking this is a matriarchy cause she’s the one giving the orders and they’re protecting her like she’s their greatest treasure, which tells me… She’s their leader. And she’s been staring at the portal for as long as I’ve been awake.”

That was a lot of information. “What did she tell you? She spoke to you… What did she say?”

“That if we tried to escape, they’d kill us.” he said quietly. “And that she’d speak to my _leader_ when she’d wake up. I’m guessing that’s you.”

Katniss’ eyebrows shot up. “She thinks I’m in charge?”

_‘Aren’t you?’_

The words echoed directly in her head and made her startle really badly.

She had watched both Haymitch and Peeta being subjected to Effie’s telepathic spell and it had looked uncomfortable as hell but this was ten times worse. This wasn’t like hearing someone’s familiar voice in your head at all, this was like… like foreign thoughts pushed directly into your mind.

It wasn’t even _words,_ it was… Her brain was interpreting what the demon was saying, turning it into words she could understand… The she-demon wasn’t speaking English at all. It was just a matter of perception.

“That goes with the matriarchy thing, I guess.” he muttered.

“Did you hear her? Just now?” Katniss panicked.

The she-demon had finally turned away from the portal and was coming toward them. All the demons in the small camp suddenly looked a lot more alert, ready to attack if, somehow, they managed to free themselves from their bonds to try and… What? _Hurt her_?

Did Katniss want to hurt her? She wasn’t sure. So far, aside from tying them up, the she-demon hadn’t done anything that warranted it. She had saved them from the first group.

_‘Should I include your soldier, then?’_

“Oh, this is _weird_.” Katniss mumbled, just as the she-demon stopped in front of them. Far enough, she noticed, that they wouldn’t be able to get her at first lunge if they got free. “Yeah, please. Include him.”

The she-demon didn’t move or give any indication that her request had been granted but Haymitch groaned so… She met her dark eyes and she felt it again, that weird connection.

“Can a demon be a Slayer?” the question slipped past her lips before she could think it through.

“No.” Haymitch countered immediately. “Though, the First Slayer… Now’s not the right time for a history lesson. Short answer’s no.” She wondered what the long answer was. Haymitch’s elbow nudged her on purpose. “Also, I don’t think they know what a Slayer is in these lands and I’m not sure now’s really a good time to explain. _Yeah_?”

Because telling demons she had been Called to kill them might not be the best move. She wasn’t _that_ stupid.

_‘Is that your name? Slayer?’_

She would never _ever_ get used to that weird demonic telepathic _shit_. The words in her head barely made sense as if they were losing a lot in translation. “That’s my title. My name’s Katniss. You?”

The she-demon considered her for a moment, as if she was also having troubles making sense of what she was saying.

_‘They call me Paylor.’_ she said finally _. ‘I am this clan’s shaman.’_

“You’re the only woman around.” her Watcher observed.

Paylor studied him calmly.

‘ _I am this clan’s shaman.’_ she repeated, then turned to Katniss. _‘Do your clans have more than one woman?’_

She frowned. “I… guess?”

‘ _Interesting.’_ the she-demon commented.

“Not all women have magic in our… clans.” Haymitch pointed out.

The demon frowned as if _that_ didn’t make any sense.

Haymitch was staring at her in a way that was probably very rude, completely fascinated. Katniss had zero interest in demon lore or uncategorized species so she elbowed him. _Hard_.

“So… We’re sorry if we’ve trespassed or whatever.” she said. “We’re looking for our friends.”

_‘The shaman who looks like you_.’ Paylor guessed.

Haymitch sat up straighter, straining the ropes. “A witch, yeah. Have you seen her? Do you know where she is? Is she safe?”

_‘Ah. So the shaman is the leader. You are her apprentice. That makes more sense.’_ the she-demon said directly into Katniss’ head and she could _feel_ her satisfaction at having found a logical explanation to their puzzling hierarchy.

“Sure.” she accepted because it would expedite the process. “Did you see her? Was there a boy with her?”

_‘Your shaman was lost.’_ Paylor said. _‘Looking for someone from her clan.’_

“Peeta.” Katniss breathed out. “Peeta wasn’t with her?”

“Peeta fell before her.” Haymitch remarked. “Not long. A few seconds. Might translate to a couple of hours or days here…” He shook his head and immediately winced when he remembered his wound. “How long ago was it?”

_‘Four moon cycles ago.’_ the she-demon said.

“Four months?” Katniss felt her throat close. Four months in this place? Had they managed to survive that long? What did they drink? Eat? It sounded…

“How long’s a moon cycle?” Haymitch asked, ignoring her.

_‘Twenty-five moon rises.’_

“And how long’s a day?” he insisted. “How long from sunrise to sunset?”

_‘From moon rise to moon set?’_ Paylor corrected.

Whatever she answered, Katniss couldn’t make sense of it. Her brain didn’t have the math equivalent.

Haymitch hesitated. “I’m guessing a little over three months for us. Roughly a day for every minute in our world.”

He sounded defeated.

She understood. It was bad.

It also meant they had less than three days at best before the portal would close.

“Do you know if she ever found the boy she was looking for?” Katniss asked.

Paylor stared at her. _‘I saw myself in her. I see myself in you.’_

_Slayer_ , an instinct insisted at the back of her mind. Somehow, somewhere, Paylor was connected to the Slayer line.

“I know. I do too.” she offered truthfully. “But the boy?”

“Where is she now?” Haymitch added, struggling against his bonds. The demons looked really alert now, ready to stab him with one of their spears.

Paylor lifted a hand and they all settled down but they were clearly not pleased about it.

_‘The Peacekeeper took her.’_

Haymitch abruptly stopped struggling to go very still. “The Peacekeeper? What’s that?”

_And how do we kill it?_ , Katniss mused.

_‘The Peacekeeper is a blight on this world.’_ Paylor explained and her rage and hatred for whatever the Peacekeeper was came through, clear as day.

“And that blight has _my_ _witch_?” Haymitch scoffed. “Well, then… Get these ropes off us. We’re gonna take out that Peacekeeper for you.”

Katniss side-eyed him.

Of course, they were going to get that Peacekeeper out if he had Effie. However, he sounded… Well, he sounded weird and she was a bit wary it was the withdrawals talking.

Paylor seemed to waver for a long moment. She stared straight at Katniss with such an intensity that the girl wondered if she could read her mind without her knowing. They were telepaths, it didn’t seem far out of the ranges of possibilities.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, one of the grey demons sitting around the campfire stood up and came toward them, slipping a knife from beneath his furs. Haymitch tensed when he came closer but he just cut his ropes. When Haymitch didn’t make a move to attack him or Paylor, he moved to Katniss and set her free.

_‘Come.’_ the she-demon said. _‘Share our fire and our meat in friendship. I offered the same to your shaman. We were friendly, she and I.’_

“That’s my girl.” Haymitch snorted. “Making friends wherever she goes.”

Katniss shot him a look, a little amused despite everything. “That’s a lot of _my_ you’re tossing around while speaking about Effie.”

“Yeah, right?” He made a face. “Might be the lack of booze. Don’t mention it to her when we get her back.” He sounded a lot more cheerful all of a sudden, maybe because they had a lead and they knew the witch was still alive. He rubbed his wrists, his grey eyes fixated on Paylor. “Say, that Peacekeeper… He wouldn’t be called _Snow_ , by any chance?”

Paylor looked a bit puzzled by his question but led the way to the fire. Katniss followed, a little wary of the intense attention of all the other demons. She didn’t dare ask for their weapons back yet.

After a few seconds Haymitch seemed to figure out what the problem was.

“Snow’s…” He glanced at Katniss. “I don’t think they’ve got a name for snow. Translation isn’t going through…”

“Vampire.” she said more plainly. “A demon but not like you.”

_‘The night-creature.”_ Paylor nodded.

Katniss shot Haymitch a smug look. Clearly, she was speaking better telepath-demon speech than he was. 

Not that it really mattered right at that moment.

“Is the night-creature the Peacekeeper?” Haymitch insisted.

“Doesn’t make sense.” Katniss denied. “Snow’s free. You said you saw him. He can’t be here to take Effie captive.”

“I’m hoping I saw wrong.” he sighed.

‘ _The night-creature escaped the Peacekeeper. That’s why he needed your shaman.’_ Paylor explained and then gestured at the fire. _‘Sit. Eat. I will tell you our story and then you will tell me yours and how you can help us. Slayer.’_

Katniss sat, close enough to the fire that she wouldn’t be feeling the chill of the night anymore, stretching her bad leg to the side because her knee really was bothering her. She also kept a discreet eye on Haymitch because she was pretty sure he wasn’t in his right frame of mind.

One of the demons took the _whatever it was_ – hopefully not human – off the roasting pike and started slicing it in equal parts. Katniss accepted her share a little warily, looking at Haymitch for direction.

_‘Fire lizard_ ’ the grey demon that had handed her her share told her directly in her head. The voice was rougher than Paylor’s. So they could speak too. They just chose _not_ to. Or to let their leader do the talking for them.

“When in Rome…” Haymitch poked at the meat before trying out a small bite. “Ain’t bad. Tastes like chicken.” But he was clearly impatient. “So, this Peacekeeper guy…”

A hush fell on the demons.

It wasn’t audible because none of them spoke out loud but Katniss _felt_ it happen, they all stopped what they were doing to gather and listen as Paylor tossed a handful of… _something_ in the fire. The flames turned green. Magical fire.

When Paylor started her story, smoke rose up in shapes to illustrate it…

And, despite her agonizing terror that Peeta was in danger, despite her exhaustion, despite everything, Katniss watched, utterly _fascinated_ …

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So let's eat our fire lizard and listen to the nice story :p Three months in hell, one of them lost, one of them prisoner of a demon... What can go wrong? Me thinks Haymitch has a case of feelings for HIS witch. XD Do we like Paylor? Because I looooved writing Paylor :p I want your thoughts! Let me know what you think!


	5. Chapter 5

With Paylor’s story being projected directly into their minds, Haymitch didn’t really need the shadow puppets show but Katniss seemed to enjoy it well enough.

Maybe because she didn’t have a splitting headache that all this telepathy wasn’t helping at all.

He couldn’t even tell where the headache was coming from anymore. The lack of booze, Brutus hitting him in the face, the open wound at the back of his skull… The same went for the nausea. Was it him going into withdrawals or was it a concussion? Was his body so heavy and sluggish because it missed its daily – _fuck_ that, he had barely touched a drink all week, so _weekly_ – dose of liquor or was it the still throbbing shoulder and the fact that he was pretty sure if he took off his clothes, his torso would be black and blue?

Earlier during the fight, he had become a dead weight.

He was good at what he did and he knew it. He was no Slayer, he didn’t have superpowers, but he had plenty of training, he had really well-honed skills and, most importantly, he had a brain. The problem was that he was also getting old, toward a time in life when demon hunters should know better than push it on the field. Which was exactly why he and Chaff had started more and more seriously talking about opening an agency somewhere, probably in Europe, and maybe hiring younger demon hunters, training them so they could go out in the world by themselves afterward… A bit like Watchers with Potentials but hopefully with a lower death ratio.

That day, in particular, he hadn’t been up to par. Without Paylor and her demons, Katniss _would_ have gone down. Because he hadn’t been able to watch her back. Because _she_ had been forced to watch _his_. And that _couldn’t_ fly. He needed to do better. Get better.

He needed…

He needed water but he had been in such a hurry to jump through a hell portal he hadn’t thought about bringing rations or a canteen. The _fuck_ was happening to him? That was the sort of things he should have thought of. The sort of things he would never have forgotten about if…

His mind flashed back to the kitchen, to Effie melting in his arms, to her words about fate and death and…

And then there was _the_ _boy_.

He felt a stab of panic every time he thought about that boy lost in this _fucking_ hell alone. Over three months. If Effie had been captured, if she hadn’t found him… Was it even possible for him to still be alive?

One glance at Katniss and he knew he wouldn’t even mention the likely conclusion.

Perhaps she already knew.

Perhaps she just didn’t want to face the music.

Paylor’s story was almost done and he realized he had barely listened.

It was the classic tale, though. Centuries ago, everything was just peachy, their clans lived in peace – or as close to that as you could get when you were living in a deserted hell with pools of sulphur and fire-lizards… He had been right and it was a matriarchy on account of female demons of that species being rarer than the males. When a female was old enough, she left her clan with some males to found her own and on and on it went… The females also apparently all had magic…

Haymitch revised his theory about the magic being powerful though. He had thought it was what was allowing Paylor to talk to them but a few of the male demons had initiated contact since so… He wasn’t sure what degree of magic they were talking about. It might be powerful, it might be parlor tricks.

He wasn’t surprised to learn the Peacekeeper was a male demon who had gotten fed up with women being in power. He had seen a lot of that in his time.

Slayers were supposed to be in charge, he believed that with all his heart. He had been raised by one – and then by a bad-ass woman Watcher – he had loved another more than anything else and he had made his best to guide four to find their own path.

Of all his Slayers, Johanna was the one who had _really_ come into her own. By the end, she had been calling the shots and he had just been offering logistical and research support. That was the goal. For them to become the leader. Maysilee had been nearly there. Cecelia too. Alina and Annie had died too young. Katniss… Katniss wasn’t there yet but, if she survived long enough, he could see her becoming a great leader. She was still young though, a baby on many accounts, and she still needed him for guidance.

That was what a Watcher was supposed to do: offer guidance, push their Slayer to become who they were supposed to be…

_In theory_.

In practice, the Council loved keeping a tight leash around their Slayer’s neck and, most of the Council being men, they hated the thought of a woman in power more than he could explain. He wasn’t sure how Coin had gotten herself where she currently was but it probably hadn’t been easy and it also probably had to do with the fact she _did_ share the line of thought that Slayers shouldn’t lead but follow orders like good little soldiers.

Slayers were never soldiers.

They were _born_ to command.

So, yeah, he got it. One man got his knickers into a twist because a woman told him to cook a fire-lizard one time too many and, just like that, the hellish paradise became a hellish hell. Apparently, the male demon had tried to kill his clan’s shaman to steal her magic – which was doubly forbidden because attacking one of the she-demons was the worst crime in those parts and because male and magic shouldn’t mix.

He carefully didn’t mention he could do some, albeit not well and certainly not on the fly.

The demon managed to get away from the rest of the clan with a spark of magic and some others defected to his side. It was war, yada, yada, yada…

Always the same _fucking_ story, Haymitch mused, watching Katniss’ reaction. The girl was enthralled by the shadow puppets moving over the fire as she munched on her piece of lizard.

_‘Then, one moon, the sky tore open and the night-creature fell…’_

Haymitch’s attention snapped back to the shaman who was looking calmly into the flames. It was a deceptive calm, he could hear the hatred and the long burning anger underneath. Centuries ago, she had said. He wasn’t sure how long those demons lived. Had she already been alive then? Or was it a story passed from generation to generation?

Truth be told, he had never seen demons like those and they were fascinating enough that, if Snow hadn’t been roaming free in their world and half their team hadn’t been missing, he might have considered writing a paper about them. Effie could have helped. They could have co-signed it. It had been a while since he had contributed anything to the Watcher’s bank of knowledge.

_‘The Peacekeeper found the night-creature and the night-creature offered an alliance…’_

Because, _of course_ , he did. Haymitch snorted. 

_‘But the night-creature was betrayed and enslaved.’_

Haymitch perked up a little. Now, _that_ was a part of the story he didn’t mind. He hoped Snow had suffered. He hoped the vampire had suffered _long_ and _painfully_.

At least until he heard the next part because he didn’t feel that smug anymore after that.

Apparently, this Peacekeeper found a more efficient way to steal magic directly from Snow and so he kept him as a sort of magical battery, something he could tap into at all time. He stole his powers and used it for his own gains – one of which apparently being _immortality_.

Now, all Snow had in terms of magic was a _very_ powerful thrall – Haymitch knew that for a fact – but vampires were demons and thus it was possible they had an inner sort of magic by nature. Still… It wouldn’t have been _pure_ magic and…

_‘With the nigh-creature powers, he enslaved our people_.’

Yeah, that was bad.

A shiver ran down his spine as Paylor explained how the Peacekeeper had sent his demons to capture more of them and had somehow turned them against their brothers and sisters… _Mind_ _control_. She didn’t say it like that but it was what it was, Haymitch was certain. That Peacekeeper broke into the demons’ mind and made them believe they belonged to him. Worse, since they were telepath demons, they would function like a giant hive with the Peacekeeper as the brain…

_‘Then, four moons ago, the night-creature disappeared and we thought the tide had finally turned…’_

From what he got from the images in his head, unlike the clans that were mostly nomadic, the Peacekeeper had built himself a castle over the centuries, probably influenced by Snow if the style was any clue, and the different clans had planned to unite and take it, free their brethrens from the tyrant’s rule…

Paylor’s clan had been getting ready to join the others when Effie had stumbled upon them. Effie and Paylor had apparently hit it off and Effie had wanted to come along because, for some reason, she was certain her lost clan member was inside the castle.

A locator spell, he figured, she must have cast a locator spell of some sort on the boy.

Anyway, it had all gone to _shit_ , as those things tended to go.

Apparently, the Peacekeeper had been collecting captured shamans for years and nobody had noticed, so he hadn’t been as defenseless as the demons had hoped. The she-demons magic was harder to control for him than Snow’s had been and he was weaker but not helpless. The demons got their asses kicked but the Peacekeepers had noticed Effie and, Haymitch supposed, her magic and he had ordered his brainwashed soldier to grab her.

What happened next was conjecture on Paylor’s part but since the Peacekeeper was back at his all-powerful levels, she figured he was now using her as he had once used Snow.

It made sense.

Neither Snow’s not Effie’s magic was native to this world so it might be easier to control and somehow more powerful too.

Paylor stopped pushing the story in their heads and there was a weird hush on the camp that wasn’t quite _audible_ since no one had spoken for a long time as it was. The hush was in everyone’s mind though.

Haymitch rubbed his mouth with a hand that was shaky for various reasons.

Three months was a long time to be captive. Three months was a long time to be used as a magical battery. Three months was…

He wanted to _kill_ something.

“But…” Katniss finally said, tense. “What about Peeta? You didn’t say… Do you know where Peeta is? Did she ever find the boy she was looking for? Our… The member of our clan?”

_‘Either he is a slave or he is dead.’_ one of the male demons spat into everyone’s head.

_‘That’s enough, Bobbin.’_ Paylor rebuked. ‘ _I don’t know about your clan’s member, Slayer_. _We never saw him._ ’

Katniss was spiraling and it wasn’t good.

Haymitch grabbed her arm and squeezed, hard enough to stop her from thinking up the worst scenarios. He had already done that and it wouldn’t help.

“We know where Effie is and Effie can find him with a locator spell.” he told her. “So now we’ve got a game plan. Get Effie, find Peeta, go home. That’s better than what we had an hour ago.”

Assuming Effie would be in any state to cast anything but that was a problem for his future self.

_‘You intend to free your shaman?’_ Paylor asked, curious.

“We’re gonna need a plan of that castle if you’ve got it.” Haymitch declared, all business now. “I need to know as much as possible about the place and that Peacekeeper. Anything you haven’t told us yet, I need to know. Also we need our weapons and if you could help us get there, it would be great.”

_‘Going into the castle is suicide_.’ the same demon from earlier said. _‘You will be turned.’_

“Like _hell_ we will.” Haymitch spat. “How does that even work? Is it a remote thing? Anyone who steps across a certain line gets entrapped or what? How does it _work_?”

Katniss was hugging herself and he squeezed her arm again, hoping it would make her _focus_. Peeta was either alright or he wasn’t but sitting there and worrying about it wouldn’t help anyone. What they needed to do was find out what had happened to him and that passed by getting Effie back.

_‘Why is your soldier acting like he is in charge?_ ’ Paylor asked Katniss.

Katniss looked up at the she-demon and then at him and then shrugged. “He kind of is. He’s my… He’s…”

“I’m her mentor. She’s young and learning.” he cut her off before they could digress into their cultural differences. Better to let her think she was Effie’s apprentice or something. “Look, if it makes you feel better, I’m happy to let Effie be our leader when she’s free. But I _need_ to get to her, alright?”

The she-demon’s black eyes studied him and then Katniss who was still struggling to collect herself. She must have reached a conclusion because she bowed her head in a slightly unhappy nod.

_‘We are not sure how the Peacekeeper turns our clans.’_ she admitted. _‘His soldiers raid us, the captives are brought back to his castle. When they come out, their minds are not their own anymore.’_

He thought fast and hard, trying to recall everything he had ever read about compelling magic of that kind. With _borrowed power_ no less…

“I think it must be contact.” he finally hesitantly decided. “He must turn them himself. Otherwise, if it was a perimeter thing, he would already have found a way to get the rest of you…”

“So we pretend to get captured and once we’re inside we kill him?” Katniss suggested.

Not a bad idea altogether but that meant going in with hands tied and without weapons…

“Let’s make that plan B.” he tempered. “Do you have any plan of the castle? Anything we can use?”

_‘You want to attack the castle, the two of you alone?’_ Paylor regarded him as if he was crazy.

And maybe he _was_.

“He has my witch and potentially my kid.” he scoffed. “We’ve come a long way to get them back, trust me, it’s not a _fucking_ power hungry misogynist demon who’s gonna stop me.” 

A lot of that got lost in translation, he figured, but, at least, it shook up Katniss. Suddenly, she stood straighter, her eyes sharper than before.

“Right.” she spat. “We’re getting Peeta and Effie back. Alright. We need a way to sneak inside and maybe a distraction…”

“That’s better.” he approved. “If we kill that Peacekeeper, it should break the spell too. Your people should be free.”

Paylor didn’t say anything for the longest time. She was clearly thinking.

_‘The shamans who are imprisoned in the castle dungeons…’_ she eventually remarked. _‘If you could free them and send them out, it might turn the tide… The Peacekeeper is not as powerful as when he possessed the night-creature… We noticed lately that the raids stuck closer to the castle and they kill more than they capture. Your shaman… She is weakening and there are only so many the Peacekeeper can control, I believe.’_

That wasn’t good.

To be expected, he supposed, but not good.

His heart squeezed but he couldn’t afford the distraction. Not now.

_‘There’s the sewers entrance.’_ the mouthy male demon – Bobbin – suggested. _‘We tried to use it during the attack last time. It’s guarded but…’_

“Not a problem.” Katniss growled. “We’ll get in.”

_‘They will know.’_ Paylor warned. _‘What one knows, they all know. Their minds are connected. However… If we attack their front, will they really notice we are stabbing them in the back?’_

“I’m not asking you to sacrifice your people.” Haymitch winced. It would be very helpful, that was for sure, but… They looked like good people – the demon part notwithstanding – he didn’t want any more good people to die that day.

“I am.” Katniss cut in, standing up.

Paylor stood too and the moment felt intense somehow.

“If you help us, we can put an end to all this. I can free you.” the girl insisted. “That’s what I do.”

Kill bad demons, Haymitch mused privately, or put a world on fire to get back to her boyfriend?

He really wanted to get back to her boyfriend too, though, _and_ to his witch, so… He stayed silent. That kind of moments was important. It was Katniss making a stand, growing into her own power, making her own huge decisions that would affect people…

It was Katniss becoming _the Slayer_.

_‘Can you truly do this?’_ Paylor asked.

Could they? Haymitch was all bravado but he couldn’t with one hundred percent certainty say it would work out.

“Yes.” Katniss promised with enough fervor that Haymitch almost believed it.

Lots of projected confidence on the girl’s part, he decided.

But whatever weird connection Katniss and Paylor had found, it seemed to work out in their favor.

Paylor turned toward the rest of her demons – not enough to take a castle.

_‘Warn the other clans.’_ she ordered. ‘ _At moonset we march to war.’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A DAY MAY COME WHEN THE COURAGE OF MEN FAILS WHEN WE FORSAKE OUR FRIENDS AND BREAK ALL BONDS OF FELLOWSHIP BUT IT IS NOT THIS DAY!  
> ...  
> ...  
> Sorry, wrong movie. I got a tiny bit excited by the let's go to war move to get our boyfriend/witch back move :p Let it NEVER be said those two do anything by halves. Are you excited for what comes next? Do you think they will find them? Will they free the shamans? Will Effie still be operational or will she be a fried vegetable? WHERE is Peeta? All those questions! I cannot WAIT to hear your thoughts. 
> 
> (Bobbin is a side character in TBOSAS, I borrowed him and I will put him back in place when I'm done haha)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update, my internet wasn't working yesterday.

Dawn was a terribly slow process in this place and yet the heat was already smothering compared to the chill of the night.

Katniss was following the grey demon walking in front of them, focused on the stony path so she wouldn’t miss a step and trip. Haymitch was right next to her, lost in his own thoughts.

She wondered if it all felt as unreal to him as it did to her.

Right after they had decided they were doing this, attacking the castle, Paylor had started making preparations. There had been no time to rest, no real time to pause and dwell. The shaman had pushed into their heads everything she knew about the castle – and it wasn’t a lot but every tactical advantage would help.

The plan was simple enough.

The clans would attack the front while they sneaked through the sewers. They would need to be quick because, according to Paylor, the clans had no chance to win, even united, and it would be a slaughter if they didn’t turn the odds in their favor. They would do that by reaching the cells and freeing the captured shamans who would then join the fight, even out the odds, and hopefully keep everyone distracted enough that nobody would notice Katniss, Haymitch and her small demons escort making their way to the heart of the castle and the huge room where the Peacekeeper had his lair – and where Effie was kept because Paylor was adamant the Peacekeeper never parted from her, not for one second. From then on, it would be improvisation.

Well… If Katniss had anything to say about it, it would be a dead Peacekeeper, a recovered witch and, hopefully, a found Peeta.

She was sort of praying he would be a prisoner in the cells with the shamans, that it would be _that_ easy.

“You’re sure you’re up for a fight?” she asked Haymitch in a low voice.

The demon who was leading their small party shot them a glare over his shoulder. Bobbin had volunteered to go with them once they had left the long caravans of clans marching toward the castle. Katniss wasn’t sure she liked him. She was pretty sure _he_ didn’t like _them_.

“Don’t worry about me.” Haymitch muttered, which didn’t reassure her at all.

In theory, he wouldn’t need his left arm to swing the sword since he was right-handed but he often favored a two-hands style of combat and the injured shoulder clearly slowed him down – Cinna _truly_ wasn’t that good with healing spells, it seemed. And the knives… She wasn’t sure he would be able to hit the side of a house with a tossing knife right then, never mind a moving target they wouldn’t actually be trying to kill – now that they knew the Peacekeeper’s demons were brainwashed, it didn’t seem right to kill them on sight so they had decided that it would only be a last resort. She supposed that left the various hunting knives stashed on him but his fingers were trembling badly and she wasn’t certain how firm his grip would be.

She also knew Haymitch wouldn’t stay behind. She had already half-heartedly suggested he should maybe guard the portal. He had asked Paylor to leave two demons there instead.

_Of course, I worry about you_ , she wanted to answer. She had lost Peeta and Effie, she couldn’t afford to lose him too, even if they were about to get the other two back. And it was _different_ anyway. Haymitch was… Haymitch had changed her life. Haymitch had done things for her and her sister he didn’t have to do, Watcher or not. She owed him. She _loved_ him. And she would never confess that much out loud because he would relentlessly make fun of her for it but she would be utterly _lost_ without him.

_‘There will be patrols in this area.’_ Bobbin suddenly said in their heads. _‘We are close now. Be silent.’_

Katniss and Haymitch exchanged a look. She shouldered off her bow while he unsheathed his mother’s sword. The blade had seen better days and wasn’t up to its usual gleaming state – Haymitch was a slob about many things but never weapons – because he hadn’t had time to clean it since that afternoon’s battle. Was it still the same afternoon? Was it the previous day? The whole time running at different speed was confusing.

They progressed quickly enough but they were all tense, on their guard. There were only five of them, they had agreed a small group would have a better chance of sneaking in, and the patrols had usually ten or more demons.

Bobbin was hoping the patrols would be more concerned with the huge army marching toward the castle though.

The castle that suddenly appeared behind a hill, looming in the distance like something out of a cartoon… It was so _out of place that_ Katniss froze, a bit shocked. Sure, the demons had helpfully pushed images of it in their heads but seeing it in person…

“He must have gotten the idea from Snow’s mind or something.” Haymitch murmured, as if he was reading her very thoughts. “His style is more roman empire usually but he’s been around for a while.”

A while didn’t cover it because the castle looked medieval – or what she _figured_ was medieval, he was the history teacher, not her. It was made entirely of grey stones, with towers and a moat full of that green acidic stuff… They couldn’t see the front since they were approaching from the back but she was ready to bet there was a drawbridge and everything… In the distance, she could hear the clamor of the army Paylor was leading.

They didn’t discuss it but they all hurried their pace, aware that the clans wouldn’t last long without reinforcement. They needed the captive shamans.

According to the info the demons had given them the sewers’ entrance was a few miles away from the building itself so that was where they were headed when the Peacekeepers’ demons attacked.

It was a small group and Katniss had already shot two before they truly closed in. Two arrows in the knees and the demons fell down. Bobbin clogged them over the head with his club. Haymitch cut one badly enough that he could knock him out and the other two demons in their group dispatched the three other attackers.

It was over before it began.

“They’ll know we’re coming.” Katniss grumbled.

The Peacekeeper’s demons were like a hive, Haymitch had hammered that into her head. They were all telepathically linked to the Peacekeeper. What one knew, they all knew.

“Let’s hope they’re too busy taking care of the army to notice us.” Haymitch sighed.

_‘We can only hope to be discreet so long.’_ Bobbin remarked and started walking again, leaving his brainwashed brethrens to nap under the sun without one care in the world.

Katniss wasn’t really happy about that, it seemed like a tactical mistake, but they couldn’t afford to waste time tying them up. Bobbin was almost running now and they had no choice but to do the same. Haymitch was breathing so hard she was sure anything with ears could hear him coming a mile away.

Eventually Bobbin skittered to a halt and crouched, the two other demons doing the exact same at the exact same time because they were all so in synch it was frightening. Katniss adapted and flattened herself on her stomach when she saw the dark mouth at the base of the hill. Haymitch was slower in hitting the ground and clearly struggling to get his breath back under control.

She resisted the urge to ask him _again_ if he was alright.

There was no point.

He _wasn’t_.

And all he would do was lie to her again and say he was feeling great.

They all stared at the sewers’ entrance for a long time. It was a while before Katniss caught the movements of a grey demon in one of those tattered white outfits. She wondered if that was another thing the Peacekeeper had gotten from Snow, an attempt at an uniform of some kind.

They waited some more and another joined him.

They both looked nervous.

It was flat ground from their hiding spot to the entrance, no way to discreetly sneak in. They would need to fight. And…

_‘Those ones we can’t save_.’ Bobbin regretfully said in their heads. _‘If they give the alarm, we will never get to the shamans.’_

Katniss agreed but she didn’t like it.

Knocking them out required getting close. Getting close would give their position away – and likely the plan.

She glanced at Haymitch. She didn’t verbalize her question. She wasn’t a telepath demon but she and Haymitch had never really needed words to understand each other. She lifted her eyebrows in interrogation and while there was a sad tug on his mouth he gave her a sharp nod.

She positioned herself on her side so she could still shoot flat on the ground, it was a difficult shot but she could make it. She would have to be fast. She notched an arrow, took a deep breath, remembered to take the fact it wasn’t _her_ arrows into account and that the trajectory would be different, and then breathed out. The arrow flew. The second one hit its target before the first demon fell down.

She hoped there wasn’t a third one hiding in the shadows.

“Go.” she ordered, already jumping to her feet and running. “Go. Go. Go.”

Bobbin and his friends didn’t need more incentives. Haymitch didn’t either but he was less quick at obeying her orders.

She was the first to reach the sewers’ entrance and she was glad to see there was no third demon. She was less glad to see that what they called _sewer_ was basically a narrow stone embankment that looked far too slippery, with a steady stream of bubbling green acidic trickling by to aliment the moat. There wasn’t much of the stuff but there was enough to make her eyes water and her throat itch.

She pulled her shirt up over her nose. Not ideal but it would have to do.

Behind her Haymitch had done the same.

“Let’s get out of here quick.” he told Bobbin, coughing a little.

From then on, they were operating blind.

Paylor knew from previous attempts at infiltrating the castle that there were cells on the lower levels but not how to get there.

Fortunately, the diversion seemed to be doing its role and if they sometimes saw brainwashed demons rushing past while they hid in the shadow, the castle’s inhabitants seemed more worried about the attack than anyone potentially sneaking in.

They took a few wrong turns and they were forced to knock out one of the demons from behind once but they eventually left the embankment and its pool of acid behind for more… _human-like_ corridors. No windows or arrow slits though and given the humidity, Katniss figured they were still below ground.

_‘I feel them.’_ Bobbin suddenly said, relief and joy tangled in a bubble that exploded in Katniss’ head. _‘The shamans. They are not under the Peacekeeper’s control. They are calling for help.’_

“Great.” Haymitch muttered, not quite as relieved as their demon friend. He was tense and on his guard. “Are we sure it’s not a trap?”

Katniss barely had time to figure out that was _likely_ a trap with their luck before Bobbin was shaking his head. _‘The corrupted ones cannot communicate. Their minds are…’_ Whatever it was that their minds were, it got lost in the telepathic translation. She felt the demon’s frustration at being unable to explain better. ‘ _They feel wrong. The shamans don’t. The shamans feel right.’_

“Well…” Haymitch sighed. “Maybe we’re finally getting lucky. Can you follow the… signal or something?”

Bobbin seemed puzzled for a second and then nodded. _‘I can get us to them, yes.’_

He looked so eager and certain that they all followed without question. They seemed to be going down again but not toward the sewers. They had to hide more than once in a dark corner. The sounds of the attack were dulled down there but the brainwashed demons’ panic was obvious. They rushed down the corridors, presumably to reinforce the troupes that were fighting the clans, not even pausing to check the shadows… 

Finally, they reached a block of empty cells.

_‘Guards.’_ one of their other demon friends suddenly warned, a fraction of a second before Katniss sensed the presence.

It made sense.

There was no reason to guard empty cells but the shamans must be close, presumably through that archway at the other end of the block, and those were prisoners worth keeping an eye on…

They hid in the shadows just like they had done every time guards had rushed past, listening to the three sets of footsteps coming closer.

Those guards though, they were not like the other ones. They were not running to join the battle. They were clearly _patrolling_ , the footsteps were unhurried, regular, there was no way their infiltration team wouldn’t be spotted. It was one thing to fool a demon rushing past by huddling in a dark corner, it was another thing to hide in plain sight. Katniss didn’t bother getting her bow, too close range for that, but she did pull out her knife. Haymitch did the same, foregoing the sword.

_Fast and swift_ , she thought, hoping the telepathic demons would get it, _we can’t afford to be spotted now._

They would need the element of surprise.

The footsteps came closer to the archway that led to the next row of cells, she positioned herself behind the wall, her whole body was tense, ready to attack…

The three brainwashed demons walked by the archway and she _didn’t_ attack.

She didn’t attack because one of them wasn’t a demon at all. 

The shout escaped her. “Peeta!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Weeeeell, it seems our little infiltration team found Peeta. What could go wrong now, am I right? What are your thoughts? Let me know everything!


	7. Chapter 7

“Peeta!” she shouted the moment she spotted his blond hair, the back of his head so familiar to her from having spent entire classes of Biology glaring at it because he had forced some bread or some cake on her.

She was only vaguely aware that the friendly demons were taking out the two guards because Peeta whirled around toward her, blue eyes widening in surprise. He didn’t say anything and he didn’t have to. He looked mostly unhurt. There was a bruise on his face but it was old and fading.

She was so _relieved_.

“Katniss!” Haymitch called out in a warning tone.

Maybe there was a third brainwashed demon or something, she didn’t care. She didn’t even care about the gibberish their telepath friends were trying to push in her head because…

_The_ _relief_.

It was so potent her throat closed and a sob escaped her.

That moment they stood there staring at each other felt like it lasted a thousand years but, actually, she knew it couldn’t have been more than a handful of seconds. Not long enough for Haymitch to reach them.

She tossed herself at the boy, hugging him tight.

“You scared me to death!” she scolded him. “What _the_ _hell_ were you thinking?”

_This_ was _exactly_ why she hadn’t wanted more relationships of any kind, more _complications_. People made her care about them and then they died or they locked themselves up in their head and a cloud of meds or they fell in a hell portal and got abducted by telepathic demons. And she ended up sick with worry and hurting and…

“I missed you.” she mumbled against his neck before she could stop herself.

Peeta’s hands tentatively touched her sides, moved up… She drew back a little, her cheeks flushing crimson because she intended to kiss him, audience or not, but before she could make the move, his hands closed on her throat.

She didn’t understand at first.

And then he started squeezing and she just couldn’t breathe anymore.

“Peeta!” she tried to croak out but it didn’t come out right.

She tried to push him away – and she _should have been able to_ with her superior strength but she also didn’t want to hurt him and… His features were distorted into a sneering hateful mask that didn’t belong on his face. She tried to touch his cheek, to grab his wrist, to…

Suddenly the boy collapsed, taking her with him, and Haymitch stood there, one of the brainwashed demon’s baton in his hand. Peeta was out cold and she still had troubles prying his hands away from her throat. Haymitch had to help.

“What did we say about _discretion_ , sweetheart?” he snapped. “You’ve betrayed our position.”

She was too shocked to say anything so she just sat there while Haymitch crouched in front of her and probed at her throat. Bobbin was clearly annoyed but he and the other demons moved to the next cellblock. There was a telepathic burst of joy so she figured he had found the shamans.

Haymitch frowned. “Can you breathe alright?”

She could barely _swallow_ but she nodded anyway, reaching for Peeta’s arm. The boy was slumped on the floor, on his stomach, out cold. She pushed Haymitch’s hands away from her neck and started searching the back of Peeta’s head for a wound…

“I was careful.” he grumbled. “Give me _some_ credit. He’s gonna have a headache but not _another_ concussion.” He sighed. “Stop those tears, sweetheart. We’ve got him, alright? We kill that Peacekeeper, he’s gonna be right as rain.”

He didn’t look right as rain. He had lost weight since she had last seen him the previous afternoon – three months ago for him – and there was the bruise on his face and that look in his eyes when he had attacked her…

“Promise?” she croaked. It sounded too easy. Break the spell and you get your boyfriend back… She was never _that_ lucky.

And the fact that killing the Peacekeeper would break the mind control thing was pure _speculation_ , they didn’t know for sure.

Haymitch hesitated. “If it doesn’t work, Effie’s gonna know what to do.” She opened her mouth to argue and he lifted a hand. “And if Effie’s not in any state to do anything, _Cinna_ can fix it. We ain’t short of magical allies, Katniss, the boy will be fine. We’ll fix him eventually. I _promise_ you.”

That wasn’t the exact same as promising Peeta would be alright right away.

She caressed the side of the boy’s face while Haymitch stood up and went to check on their allies. She only vaguely listened as he discussed with Bobbin and the shamans that were now the _de facto_ leaders.

The urgency was clear though.

The Peacekeeper would know what they were up to so they needed to hurry.

It was hard to force herself not to protest when they tied Peeta up. It was decided their two demon friends would take him with the shamans back to the clans – and keep him _safe_ during the battle – while Bobbin stayed with them to go fight the Peacekeeper.

Haymitch nudged her onward once they had seen the shamans back to the sewers.

Not too soon either because they stumbled upon a group of five brainwashed demons clearly sent to intercept them.

Katniss tried not to be lethal when she took them out but she was irrationally angry now and her throat hurt and she really wanted to stick an arrow in that Peacekeeper’s eye.

She had her limits.

Turning her boyfriend against her – was Peeta her boyfriend? they hadn’t discussed that – was her limit.

°O°O°O°O°

Stalking up the castle corridors next to his Slayer felt like Haymitch was walking with a lit up powder keg.

He and Bobbin the not-so-friendly telepath demon didn’t have time to do anything when they encountered a squad clearly sent to stop their progression because Katniss _bulldozered_ them, barely holding back enough to leave the brainwashed demons alive at the end of the short fight. A few of them might wake up missing limbs.

She was furious.

_More_ than furious, he thought, she was terrified sick for her boyfriend.

And he got that.

He hadn’t been lying. He would do everything to fix Peeta and he _was_ eighty percent confident killing the Peacekeeper would be enough to sever the mental brainwashing but there would be consequences. There were _always_ consequences to stuff like that. That was magic for you.

He hadn’t expected to find the boy turned. He had thought, at worst, they would have kept him in a cell as a pressure point to use on Effie. That was…

_A problem for later._

Right now, the real problem was his Slayer spiraling into a lethal ball of fury, which might turn out to be a good thing or a bad thing depending on points of view.

The shamans must have rejoined the clans outside because the castle kept shaking on its foundation and given the clamor they could hear… They might not win the battle if the Peacekeeper didn’t get taken out but they would certainly shake things up enough that it would take him a while to recover – which wouldn’t help any if they got annihilated in the process.

Katniss stormed ahead but it was Haymitch who guided them, relying on his distant knowledge about medieval times from his Watcher training days. There was a story about a Slayer and an enchanted castle, he was pretty sure. He vaguely remembered being forced to do a research paper on that and _bitching_ to Mags about it. The knowledge about castles in addition to the limited intel the demons had been able to give him came in handy though.

He managed to get them to a sort of balcony that overlooked what was clearly the castle’s main room. They crouched behind the stone railing, peeking over it to get an idea of what waited feet below – the drop would be doable for Katniss but for him and Bobbin, it would be tricky, they might need to find stairs.

Brainwashed demons were rushing to the main room from at least four different entrances, armed to the teeth, cramming themselves there like a crowd at a concert… They were abandoning the castle’s defense, he figured, to surround the dais where… What _was_ that?

The Peacekeeper didn’t look at all like the rest of the telepathic demons. But, then again, it had been alive for thousands of years according to Paylor. The demon was fat. There was no other word for it. Fat and huge because he probably didn’t move much, he was the brain of the whole hive after all, his grayish color made him look like a particularly bloated corpse. Haymitch doubted he could move by himself, let alone _fight,_ which would come to their advantage.

The demon wasn’t all that caught his eyes and made his breath stick in his throat though.

Effie was right next to him, floating in the air on her back, trapped in a pale golden bubble from which small tendrils of light trickled to the Peacekeeper…

_Her magic._

He was siphoning her magic. 

It was one thing to know about it, it was entirely another to _see_ it.

It felt so… _wrong_. The violation was so deep and intimate… Magic was part of her and _this_ …

She looked terrible.

She looked _dead_.

She was chalk white, her lips were almost colorless, her eyes were closed… Her limbs were lax like they always were in sleep, her blond hair floated around her like it would have underwater… Her clothes were dirty and torn, proof if it was needed that she had given that demon one hell of a fight…

The gold of the magic bubble was nowhere near its usual hues. It was pale too, fading…

She looked _dead_ or close to be.

Katniss coiled on herself and he knew, he just _knew_ that she was readying herself for the jump. He grabbed her arm before she could do something stupid.

There were more than thirty demons down there, without counting the Peacekeeper who might or might not have more magic tricks in his bag than the mind control thing and who might or might not turn them into members of his army if they got too close. They didn’t need her to go down and fight, they needed her to take him out with a well-placed shot.

_‘My magic protects him.’_

He startled. Badly.

Both Katniss and Bobbin stared at him worriedly.

His gaze might have gone a little vacant and, he figured, they must have been scared he was turning on them.

“Effie.” he mouthed to Katniss and the girl relaxed a fraction.

He didn’t.

The state she was in, he had thought she was unconscious at the very least.

_‘Princess_ ’ he thought back, hoping she would get the relief and all the other complicated feelings through the telepathic spell she had no business casting when she was in this state. How had she even known he was there? 

‘ _You have Peeta.’_

It was not a question. Maybe she could see what the Peacekeeper could see – which was worrying because it meant the demon might know what she knew and…

Effie cut that train of thoughts off even if he hadn’t been directing it at her: _‘I shielded my mind but I always kept an eye on Peeta.’_ He wondered if this was a variation of the telepathic walkie-talkie spell or if she was just too tired to be subtle and _not_ pry. _‘Yes.’_ she said and it didn’t really answer the question but it told him he better be careful what he was thinking about. _‘I was saving just enough strength to contact you in case you came after us.’_

‘ _In case?’_ he scoffed. ‘ _You thought I wouldn’t?’_

What he got through the telepathic link was uncertainty and fear.

_‘I cannot maintain the spell long.’_ Her voice whispered in his mind, tired and frail. ‘ _I am almost empty.’_

‘ _Of power?’_ He licked his lips, staring at Katniss’ face without really seeing it. The girl was waiting but she looked impatient.

_‘Power faded days ago. The magic is feeding on my life force now.’_ she informed him and that was bad. _Really_ bad. _Potential_ _coma_ bad. That meant what the demon was sucking out of her wasn’t just magic, it was… It was _her_ _life_. _‘I have just enough strength left to talk to you. I have a plan.’_

Of course she did.

It was so utterly silent in that place aside from the clinging of weapons and armors… It made his skin itch. Or maybe it was the fact that he didn’t like the resigned tone in which Effie was talking.

_‘I’ve got a plan too. Kill that demon and get you and the kid home.’_ he argued because he could feel he wasn’t going to like hers.

_‘How long has it been?’_ she asked. ‘ _Out there.’_

_‘Little more than an hour.’_ He rubbed his face. _‘We had to go back to the house. I came after you as soon as I could, sweetheart.’_

_‘Did you stop Snow?’_

The question hung between them.

His lack of answer was answer enough.

His priority hadn’t been Snow.

His priority hadn’t been duty.

His priority was very screwed.

He had the vague feeling she would have been nodding sadly if she could have.

_‘I will expel what little magic I have left.’_ she informed him suddenly. _‘He thinks my mind is gone, he does not expect it. The blast should knock a few demons out. It will leave him vulnerable so Katniss can shoot him. The other demons… I am not certain they will come back to themselves immediately. You should sneak out and let the shamans handle the rest.’_

_‘We’re also gonna need to get_ you _out.’_ he pointed out.

There was a long silence in his head and, for a second, he was scared the spell had broken.

Katniss was still impatiently staring at him, so was Bobbin.

_‘I want you to take Peeta and Katniss back home. Do not bother with my body.’_ she finally said.

He grew cold.

An inner cold.

It washed over him in a great wave of panic. _‘What do you mean_ your body?’ The panic was replaced by a feeling that didn’t belong to him. It was calming and it took him a while to identify it. _Serenity_ , acceptance… _‘_ Fuck, no, _Effie. I didn’t come all this way to watch you die.’_

‘ _I have known it would end this way for a few weeks.’_ Her voice was a caress in his mind. _‘It is the safest option.’_

_‘_ Fuck _the safest option. You ain’t sacrificing yourself_ again _. I’m tired of watching you try to kill yourself today. I’m jumping down there and cutting him to pieces myself if…’_ he growled.

_‘I love you.’_

The words echoed in his head, so powerful and warm he could do nothing but crouch there like an idiot, staring at Katniss and feeling… _a lot_ of conflicted things. The words terrified him. The words were bad in a lot of ways because they always came hand in hand with grief. The words…

He was silent too long.

Sadness washed over him, bottomless, it filled his mouth, his chest… It tasted like her skin.

_‘I thought so.’_

Her voice was a regretful brush in his mind.

_‘Effie.’_ he panicked, now was _really_ not the time for that talk he didn’t want to have. He had made it clear he cared about her, hadn’t he? _Fuck_ , he had gone to hell for her. Why did she have to drop _that_ bomb on him _now_ when… ‘ _Effie, it’s not that…_ ’ 

_‘It is alright. I knew it was most likely only on my side. I know you care about me. We are friends, a_ team _, aren’t we? I just wanted you to know.’_ she answered.

_‘No.’_ he countered. ‘ _Sweetheart, that’s…’_

_‘Goodbye, Haymitch.’_

‘ _No_!’ he thought but he felt the spell disconnect with a _pop_ and then…

Then there was a blast of golden light that bathed the whole castle and tossed them all toward the nearest wall...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo Peeta is brainwashed and is there ANYONE here on board with Effie's plan? This being said can we all give a commune scream of Haymitch! since he only had cricket noises to give to what might be her last love declaration? THAT MAN. Katniss wants to kiss things though, that might come in handy XD
> 
> One chapter left in this episode! I hope you enjoyed this! Let me know your thoughts!


	8. Chapter 8

Effie had said the spell would knock a few demons off, she had been wrong.

_Always so ready to forget she was so damn powerful…_

It was hard enough to shake the castle’s very foundation and Haymitch's head was ringing _again_ when he managed to get to all four after hitting the hard stone wall at their backs. Katniss had fared better and was groaning, already back on her feet.

“Shoot him!” he ordered, not even caring that he was screaming in an otherwise _silent_ room.

Katniss recovered quickly and understood at once, she shrugged off her bow as she bounced to the balcony, took aim and released an arrow. Haymitch crawled to the balustrade, grabbed the stone parapet and hauled himself up in time to hear her curse. The Peacekeeper was wagging left and right, the arrow imbedded in his chest, where the heart should be…

The skin was too thick, Haymitch mused, or the heart had shifted when he had grown two thousands.

“Get him in the eye.” he snarled.

It was a difficult shot, almost an impossible one with the demon flailing that way, which was why she had chosen the safest bet of his chest. Besides, he could feel… It was like clammy fingers trying to close around his mind, trying to…

The Peacekeeper was trying to use what he had left of power to take control of them.

Katniss made a face and released three arrows one after the other.

The disagreeable feeling stopped and Haymitch watched the Peacekeeper slump on himself, dead. _Hopefully_.

He would suggest beheading him and burning the corpse just in case.

The thirty or so demons down there looked confused for a second and then started attacking each other.

It was _chaos_.

And in that chaos he had troubles spotting his witch because the golden bubble had disappeared and she was…

Lying on her side, half-fallen off the dais, next to the demon’s corpse. She wasn’t moving. He couldn’t tell if she was still breathing.

Katniss scowled. “Why are they fighting? They should be free of the spell. Why are they fighting?”

_‘I can feel their minds again.’_ Bobbin told them. _‘They don’t feel wrong anymore but they are… confused. Scared. Jumbled.’_

Haymitch got the last part in impressions rather than words.

He didn’t care why the demons were fighting.

All he cared about was getting to Effie and hoping she wasn’t dead. Because if she _was_ dead… _Fuck_ , he would hire her mother and rise her from the grave and then kill her zombie-self with his own bare hands…

“That’d probably be a good time to let the shamans in.” he pointed out, looking around for stairs he could use. He didn’t spot any so he estimated the drop again and the chances he would break an ankle on landing – and the chances he would get killed getting to her if he tried to make his way there with a broken ankle, a busted shoulder, and a recurring headache that may or may not mean he would start losing grip and hallucinating soon.

“I’ll go get her.” Katniss said, grabbing his arm before he could actually do the stupid thing and toss himself off a balcony. “You go with Bobbin. Make sure Peeta’s safe.”

He didn’t want Katniss to go get her.

He wanted to get her _himself_.

He wanted to _rescue_ her and tell her…

Her words echoed in his mind, sweet and sad. _I love you_. Why _the_ _fuck_ did she have to do this to him _now_ of all times? With Snow around… She knew what…

“Haymitch.” Katniss snapped and he blinked back into reality. Oh, this was bad. _Really_ bad. His hands were shaking. _His whole body_ was shaking. He was _hot_. Hot enough that he considered stripping down for a second, before getting a grip on himself. “Go with Bobbin.”

“She might be dead.”

He hadn’t meant to say it like that.

The girl recoiled, her grey eyes snapping to where Effie laid. She hadn’t moved. Not even a twitch.

He didn’t want Katniss to get to her and only find a dead friend. He didn’t want her to have to go through that. _Fuck_ , he didn’t want to go through that himself. Not again.

His brain flashed back and, for a moment, he was with Mabel again, holding her to him, their matching gaping wounds bleeding over each other…

“Go with Bobbin.” Katniss insisted, expression hard and closed.

He didn’t go with Bobbin as much as Bobbin dragged him out, impatient to get back to Paylor.

He made it five steps in the corridor before he bent in two and retched. He didn’t have much in his stomach and it did very little for the nausea that had steadily been increasing over the last few hours.

°O°O°O°O°

Katniss had been ready for the drop to shake her and it did.

She landed on her two feet, thanks to her Slayer strength, but she felt the impact from her soles to her thighs.

It was a general brawl down there and she didn’t feel guilty about hitting left and right, tracing herself a path to the dais where the huge blotted demon remained dead. The first thing she did when she finally reached him was to stab him in the neck – just to be sure. Then, she kneeled next to Effie, cautious of the fighting demons a few feet away, cautious also of the fact she really didn’t want to know if the witch was…

She reached out with shaky fingers for the Watcher’s neck because she couldn’t tell if she was breathing. If the witch’s chest was rising and falling, the movement was too small for her to catch it.

She couldn’t feel anything.

Her heart was beating too hard, the fight was too loud… She couldn’t feel _anything_.

Effie was cold to the touch but she knew that didn’t really mean anything. Corpses didn’t grow cold immediately. That was just her projecting her fears. Still, she shed off her jacket and wrapped the witch in it before picking her up.

She carried her to the closest door she could find, avoiding the enraged demons and kicking them with her legs when she couldn’t help it.

The corridors outside the main room were blissfully empty but she didn’t dare stop to try and find a pulse again. She was a bit scared she wouldn’t find any.

Effie was far too light.

She had always been thin but she looked positively tiny in her arms, as if she had lost a lot of weight, and given how sunken her cheeks were… She might have. Had they even fed her? Or had they counted on her magic to sustain her?

She met Paylor and a group of male demons as she was trying not to get lost in the labyrinth that were the castle’s corridors.

The shaman took one look at the woman in her arms and her face grew somber. _‘Your soldier is sick.’_

“Yeah.” Katniss sighed. “I know.” Haymitch had held off the withdrawal symptoms much longer than she had thought he could. “Can you… Can you help her?”

Paylor came closer and gently laid her big clawed hand on Effie’s forehead.

_‘She lives’_ the shaman professed. _‘But she is weak and her magic is foreign to me. I might hurt more than I help… Do you still want me to try?’_

She hesitated and then shook her head. “We need to get back to the portal. There’s someone on the other side who can help.”

Paylor nodded. _‘You freed us, Slayer. Anything we can do to help you, we will do.’_

It all went very, very fast after that.

Paylor led the way outside the castle where fur tents had been erected for the wounded and the recovering brainwashed demons… Katniss was relieved to see that some of the demons in white rags seemed to be sitting calmly, dazed but not violent. That was good, certainly. It meant that the spell _was_ broken, just that not everyone responded to that the same way…

_‘I will find gurneys for the trip’_ Paylor told her.

Katniss was about to follow her when Haymitch suddenly appeared in front of her, his face a mask of anguish he didn’t bother to school… He looked sick, indeed. A bit yellow under the sun, bloodshot eyes, unsteady on his feet… _Feverish_.

“Is she…” He couldn’t bring himself to finish the question.

“Paylor says she’s alive.” she promised quickly. “I just can’t find her pulse. And I think she needs Cinna or a hospital. _Right now._ We’re leaving as soon as Paylor can organize it.”

“Yeah.” He nodded and reached as if to take her from her arms.

Katniss stepped back. “Are you sure you can carry her? Your shoulder’s…”

She was being kind by pretending the problem was _the shoulder_.

“I need to.” he cut her off. “ _Please_.”

Knowing he would never hurt Effie, at least not _purposefully_ , she relented and handed the witch over. He didn’t manage to stay upright and hold her at the same time so he dropped down on the stony ground and cradled her in his lap…

He touched her face lightly, as if he was scared her skin would break under his touch.

“Effie…” he whispered. “Effie…” Her eyes remained closed, Katniss still couldn’t see her chest rising or falling and the woman still looked far too pale. He adjusted his grip and the witch’s head rolled on his shoulder. He buried his face in her blond hair. “Princess, please, don’t do this to me… Don’t do this to me…”

His voice was breaking and Katniss felt ill-at-ease watching it. This was _private_.

So she walked away in search of Peeta…

She had to ask three demons before she finally found him, sitting under one of the fur tents reserved for the wounded. He looked stunned and lost.

She crouched in front of him, careful not to step in his space. She wanted to touch him. She wanted to hold him. _Hell_ , she wanted to _kiss_ him. But… “Do you feel better?”

His blue eyes darted around before they settled on her, a bit vacant.

“Katniss.”

His voice was raspy from lack of use.

A part of her wanted to weep at hearing it again.

“Yeah.” She forced a grin. “To be clear, you asked me to be sure I was all in before kissing you and then, less than forty-eight hours _after_ I told you I was sure, you go and jump into a _Hellmouth?_ How should I take this?”

She had meant it as a joke but a bit of hurt and anger slipped through.

Peeta stared at her. His brow furrowing.

“I want to kill you. I want to _kill_ you.”

It was the only warning she got before he jumped on her but it was also what allowed her to duck and pin him to the ground on his stomach, his arms locked behind the small of his back. He kicked and struggled but she held firm, her heart sinking in her chest.

Wasn’t he supposed to be fixed?

Shouldn’t he…

A shaman that she almost mistook for Paylor for a second rushed over and touched his head. Peeta’s body grew slack.

_‘He will sleep for a while’_ the she-demon told her _‘Their minds are jumbled. It will take time.’_

How much time exactly?

“What’s going on?” Haymitch asked, staggering closer. He took one look at her still pinning Peeta’s unconscious body down and it seemed to answer his own question because he shook his head. “We need to go, they’re ready. We’ll get him on another gurney and Cinna can fix him when we’re home. It’s okay, he might just need time.” He made a face. “And tell your demon friend I’m fine and _I_ don’t need to be carried back. I can _fucking_ walk by myself. I’m _alright_.”

“Sure.” she deadpanned.

She would humor him until he dropped, she decided.

But she was impressed because he _didn’t_ drop on the trek back to the portal. He stumbled and tripped plenty of times but he didn’t drop and he didn’t let go of Effie’s limp hand either.

She kind of got that.

She walked right next to Peeta’s gurney and spent more time watching him sleep than focusing on her surroundings.

The walk to the portal paradoxically felt endless and short. Once they reached it, Haymitch lost no time gathering Effie in his arms and, since Katniss was eager to go home too, she grabbed Peeta bridal style – spared a thought for what he would have to say about _that_ and decided he would probably _not_ care – and followed after him.

She was so eager to get their friends’ help that she barely remembered to glance back at Paylor.

_‘Goodbye.’_ the shaman said. _‘Sister.’_

_Goodbye_ , she thought back, hoping the demon would catch it, _And thank you_.

Then, she turned back to the portal.

Cinna had moved, she thought, so it must have been some time on the other side. How long? One minute? Two? It seemed crazy to think it had been more than a day for them.

Haymitch didn’t pause for consideration, he jumped straight in and she followed.

Was the world she was going back to better than the hell she was leaving behind, though?

Only time would tell…

* * *

**_To Be Continued._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I knooooow I'm mean! Another cliffhanger! And so ends Episode 9 (or 2x01 depending on how we're counting). I hope you liked it! Katniss to the rescue! Peeta is at least alive for sure if not a bit confused still, that's something right? And as for Effie... We will have to wait and see! 
> 
> Next Episode will start on September 13. I hope to see you then!

**Author's Note:**

> Who's ready for a trip to Hell? :p Let me know all your thoughts, predictions and feelings!


End file.
